With the Scorpion program, France positions itself at the forefront of collaborative defense. METRAVIB, the inventor of acoustic gunshot detection and supplier of acoustic localization systems for “Griffon” VBMR (multi-role armored vehicles) and “Jaguar” EBRC (armored reconnaissance and combat vehicles), fits perfectly into this new operational approach, by offering solutions to exploit, fuse and share data from theatres of operation.

Metravib's PEARL (left) and PILAR V (right) acoustic detection systems

At Eurosatory 2018, propelled by the Scorpion program, acoustic detection establishes itself as vital technology for the protection of people, sites and vehicles: METRAVIB’s PILAR and PEARL systems will therefore be present across some fifteen vehicle and equipment supplier stands, as well as that of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and the CEAM.

New technology is only an added value in battle if soldiers can easily use and trust it. As far as acoustic detection is concerned, this trust comes from the system’s certain ability to recognize all gunshots and to help troops to deal with threats as quickly as possible.

METRAVIB is committed to providing systems with the lowest incidence of false alarms in the market, as well as effective protection functions like real-time updates of gunshot coordinates while a vehicle is moving, automatic coupling with the turret and sharing GPS coordinates of gunshot locations via Battle Management Systems (BMS).

Present in combat for 25 years, especially in the French army’s VAB TOPs (front-line armored vehicles with remotely operated turrets), METRAVIB’s systems are tried and tested; which has earned them the trust of the DGA and STAT.

Acoustics enable us to go far beyond simply localizing gunshots. By exploiting all the key information contained in the sound signals, it’s possible to provide highly qualitative information across an increasingly large field of threats: technology is evolving from gunshot detection to decoding the overall sound environment.

METRAVIB’s acoustic detection systems are designed to function as a network and easily integrate into military vetronics. It is therefore possible to exploit essential and multiple data between several acoustic sensors, to fuse the data of an acoustic sensor with that of an optronic sensor, or even to send data to third-party equipment like “scout” drones to overfly and remotely monitor areas identified as threatening.

With these developments, acoustic detection becomes a vital data source for “infovalorization”, the digitalization of the battlefield and the collaborative combat; it also paves the way for a broader scope of application, for example, very noisy platforms or urban environments.

“I am delighted that so many of our partners are presenting our systems on their stands. The delegations will thus have the opportunity to discover a maximum of applications of our PILAR and PEARL systems. We are also very proud to show how we are capable of exploiting our data with mapping software, an important step in infovalorization," said Laurent Galindo, Sales Director, METRAVIB Defence.