Indra,
the premier IT company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe,
is working on the development of a new maritime surveillance light aircraft
in collaboration with Italian aircraft manufacturer Tecnam, firms SELEX
Galileo, FLIR Systems and Remote Sensing and Sensor Integration company
Airborne Technologies.
The five partners seek to develop an aircraft equipped to provide state-of-the-art
surveillance at a more competitive cost in terms of acquisition and
operation. The aircraft will be ready to engage in rescue missions,
protection of fishing fleets and environment; and surveillance of illegal
trafficking of either people or drugs, among others. The aircraft will
be ready to enter service by the end of 2012.
This aircraft will patrol those maritime zones usually kept under surveillance
by coastguards with medium-size helicopters for a considerably reduced
cost and highly more efficient as it will be equipped with a thorough
maritime surveillance system (radar, AIS vesseld ID system and a cutting-edge
electroptical device).
To develop a solution of this type tecnam's P2006T platform was selected.
This light, twin-engine aircraft is easy to pilot and uses traditional
fuel which dramatically reduces costs in operation. It also requires
minimal maintenace and can takeoff and land in makeshift runways.
The aircraft will be able to patrol an area from 50 to 200 nautical
miles offshore. This zone is out of the range of coastal surveillance
systems and medium-size helicopters which can make it up to 100 miles.
In order to cover this zone effectively the required maritime patrol
aircrafts can be acquired and operated at a much higher cost.
The competitive cost of this new platform will permit the forces in
charge of coast surveillance and protection of the exclusive economic
zone to afford the necessary units to undertake their duties in these
waters. At the same time, by reducing operation costs, the aircraft
can patrol as many times as necessary. |
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The participation
of Indra, SELEX Galileo, FLIR Systems and Airborne Technologies contributes
knowledge and experience to this project to equip the aircraft with
the necessary intelligence to engage in maritime surveillance missions.
The systems to be implemented will allow the platform to explore areas
of up to 40,000 nautical square miles each time.
Indra will undertake the implementation of the mission system, the key
element to control embarked sensors, integrate collected data and present
them to the operator. The mission system also allows control of broad
band bidirectional communications with the ground station which receives
and submits information in real time as the information generated can
be integrated and processed in any existing coastal surveillance or
maritime traffic control systems.
Regarding the sensors, the aircraft will be equipped with SELEX Galileo's
Seaspray 5000E radar whose detail degree allows distinction of the shapes
and sizes of objects and is capable of detecting vessels or small objects
in the sea. It will also carry a state-of-the-art electroptical camera
of large format and high definition of FLIR Systems. We should also
add a vessel id system which captures the automatic signals of ships.
This identification signal emitted by ships is compared with that supplied
by the aircraft sensors, thus facilitating surveillance and detection
of suspicious actions. |
