When Safety is Critical.
JUNE, 2009 - HOD HASHARON ISRAEL
The requirements and expectations from an EO payload in the urban war scenario are very different from other war scenarios, and the CONTROP STAMP miniature payloads were designed to meet the challenge!
Firstly, in the urban scenario, whereby the forces include infantry troops combined with armed vehicles and tanks, the contact ranges with enemy are often very short and the direction of the enemy could be from all sides (360º). In addition, the enemy can come from different angles (not just vertically) - for example, the enemy can be hiding in a ditch or on the roof of a tall building. In some cases, enemy troops could also be located at long ranges using long range ammunition or missiles. The urban war scenario presents additional problems and requirements from the EO payload:
- Line of Sight - due to the fact that the urban terrain is comprised mostly of buildings, walls and other obstacles will create an operational need for a high quality real time video image from the sky above. This is crucial for mission effectiveness, including:
- Battlefield intelligence (detect, identify, track and locate enemy troops) for battle planning, which must be in real- time, during the action.
- Protection of friendly troops, in real-time, to detect enemy ambush or roadside charge.
- Command and control of friendly troops, including location, to allow tracking one’s own forces and supporting them.
- For this reason, the UAV must be above the forces, with a payload capability, in order to track targets at very steep angles, mostly at the Nadir point. This requires a 3 or 4 gimbal payload (a 2 gimbal payload will not provide a stable enough picture at the nadir point).
- Image Quality - in the urban scenario, there may be enemy intermingling with civilians. This requires a very high quality image to be able to differentiate between them, and to identify if the suspect it is carrying a TV camera or a missile launcher. In addition one must be able to differentiate between enemy forces and one’s own forces and to prevent friendly fire. Again, this requires a high quality image from the sensor and a highly stabilized payload in order to achieve that.
- Optical zoom - with a small UAV and in urban warfare, the flight level and the ranges to the target are very dynamic and constantly changing. Therefore, it is imperative that the CCD or IR camera should have a continuous optical zoom lens to enable the Operator to adjust the Field of View and the resolution of the image, to meet the specific needs.
- Accessibility of image - in urban warfare, all troops need to have the video image available to them, and to use the image for their specific requirements, which are quite unique for each individual unit. This requires:
- Image receiver capability for the troops.
- A high quality and user-friendly image, especially at night (FLIR).
- A user-friendly payload.
- All required data in the video, combined with the image.
- The payload used by all troops must be easy to learn and use, including the most crucial IR image interpretation.
- Video enhancement capabilities - during urban operations, the light intensity varies between bright sunny conditions to dark shaded areas. These varying conditions require special video enhancement capabilities to overcome different image problems, to allow the operator in urban operations the maximum viewing capabilities in all light conditions.
The CONTROP STAMP stabilized miniature payloads were designed while considering all of the above written problems and requirements. Currently available is the D-STAMP- with a daylight CCD camera and the U-STAMP with an uncooled IR camera and the new U-STAMP-Z with an uncooled IR camera which has a X4 continuous optical zoom lens.
The STAMP payloads were designed specifically for miniature UAVs, for tactical “over-the-hill” reconnaissance in daylight and/or at night. They were designed to provide a high quality and high resolution image which is gyro-stabilized, independent of the platform maneuvers and vibrations. The STAMP payloads are very light weight (from 750g) and provide a superior high performance quality image with a variety of different day and night sensors. They include continuous optical zoom and graphics which are superimposed on the video. They provide LOS data on the video signal and have mounting flexibility- either horizontal or vertical (up/down) and they are three gimbal payloads, to ensure not missing a critical sight. They include optional built-in Inertial Navigation System (INS) on the Line of Sight, high resolution Panoramic Scan Mode and a nx360 degrees for roll/azimuth gimbal.
Experts at CONTROP have many years of in the field operational experience, and use this to provide products that are user-friendly and meet the real needs of the field. The STAMP payloads are combat proven, and were chosen as the best stabilized miniature payloads available on the market today.
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