New military wide-area surveillance system could cover Arab deserts
ABU DHABI -- Gulf Cooperation Council states have been briefed on a new military surveillance system designed to operate in the vast desert of the Arabian Peninsula.BAE Systems has briefed several of the six GCC states on its new real-time persistent surveillance system, which has undergone testing by the U.S. military. The Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System, or ARGUS-IS, was meant to track vehicles and enemy forces in both desert and urban areas.
"The ARGUS-IS system overcomes the fundamental limitations of current airborne surveillance systems," Steven Wein, director of optical sensor systems at BAE, said.
Executives said ARGUS-IS was being developed for the U.S. Defense Department, but could be eventually exported to U.S. allies in the Gulf. In 2007, the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory awarded BAE an initial $18.5 million contract to develop the system, designed for installation on unmanned and manned surveillance platforms.
ARGUS-IS was also meant to overcome limitations to existing vehicle-mounted imaging systems. Most of these mobile high-resolution imaging systems, characterized by a so-called "soda-straw view," have been incapable of persistent coverage.
"Existing wide-area systems have either inadequate resolution or require multiple passes or revisits to get updates," Wein said.
In 2010, BAE demonstrated ARGUS-IS in a flight aboard a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter. The system, with multiple video windows, was designed to detect and track thousands of targets over dozens of square kilometers. BAE designed and produced the system's sensor and processor.
The system contains what executives termed a high-resolution, extreme wide-area, real-time video sensor, on-board processing system as well as ground processor for interactive multi-target designation, tracking and exploitation. Executives said ARGUS-IS would also be suitable for U.S. military missions in Afghanistan.
"ARGUS-IS will significantly advance the army's capability to protect its troops through improved search and surveillance capabilities," John Antoniades, BAE's program manager for ARGUS, said.
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