BAE Systems Showcases Global Autonomy Capabilities

San Diego - BAE Systems is showcasing its global land, sea and air autonomous capabilities at this year’s AUVSI North America 2008 in San Diego from June 10th – 12th, underlining the company’s integrated approach to developing unmanned technologies across all three domains.

In the land domain the company will feature its prototype Black Knight unmanned combat vehicle, together with the Supacat and HERO unmanned ground vehicles. Also on display will be the Wildcat 4x4 autonomous off-road vehicle test bed, which has been used to inform technological developments in a number of BAE Systems’ land based autonomy programmes.

The Talisman unmanned underwater vehicle and Protector unmanned integrated naval combat system will illustrate the Company’s autonomous capabilities both below and above the water. Protector is currently in service with navies in Asia, the Persian Gulf and the Middle East. Talisman, an underwater unmanned vehicle with a highly advanced mine clearance capability, was developed at BAE Systems’ Waterlooville site in Southern England, using rapid protyping techniques proven in other BAE Systems’ autonomy programmes.

BAE Systems’ experience in unmanned air vehicles will be demonstrated through Kingfisher, an flexible experimental platform for a variety of UAV sensor and operational technologies; the Skyeye unmanned aircraft system that has been procured and operationally deployed by the U.S. Army and several international customers; the IAV2 ducted-fan unmanned aerial vehicle and HERTI, one of a new generation of UAS suitable for both military and civil operations, which has been deployed with the Royal Air Force in Afghanistan. Also featured is Taranis, a £124 million, four year technology demonstrator programme which is examining the technology required for unmanned combat air vehicles for the UK MOD.

Platforms such as Supacat, Talisman, Kingfisher, HERTI and Taranis share common systems technology and systems architecture, developed by BAE Systems, resulting in highly adaptable and versatile autonomous systems across land, sea and air.

The ICE (Image Collection and Exploitation) system that enables the autonomous collection and distribution of high quality imagery with very low bandwidth demands will be demonstrated at AUVSI alongside the Company’s Ground Control infrastructure and end-to-end mission planning capabilities for autonomous vehicles.

Further capability is shown through high performance sensor payloads and systems including the Aurora GEN IV Hyperspectral/EO system. The Aurora system is specifically designed to meet tactical needs of unmanned aircraft with its ultra-lightweight compact size and the highly efficient onboard processing that minimizes bandwidth requirements. Emerging microbot capabilities will also be featured at AUVSI 2008.

BAE Systems is at Stand 201 at AUVSI North America 2008.