Navy asks Logos for enabling technologies in compact unmanned aircraft sensor payloads

LAKEHURST, N.J., 11 June 2015.Sensor payloads experts at Logos Technologies LLC in Fairfax, Va., are developing enabling technologies for compact sensor systems for unmanned aircraft like the RQ-21 Blackjack, Tigershark, and RQ-8 Fire Scout for the Air Force and Army.

Officials of the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Lakehurst, N.J., have announced a $32.8 million contract to Logos to capitalize on wide area airborne surveillance, hyperspectral imaging, high-resolution imaging, and light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technologies for unmanned aircraft sensor payloads.

The Boeing Insitu RQ-21 Blackjack is a catapult-launched unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can be launched and recovered from land sites or surface ships. It is 8.2 feet long, has a 16-foot wingspan, and weighs 135 pounds.

The Navmar TigerShark UAV for reconnaissance and surveillance missions has a wingspan of 22 feet, weighs 260 pounds, has a payload capacity of 50 pounds, and a flight duration of 10 hours.

The Northrop Grumman Fire Scout unmanned helicopter has a maximum takeoff weight of 3,150 pounds, is 24 feet long, has a 27.5-foot rotor diameter, and can fly for eight hours between refuelings.

Related: Electro-optical sensor payloads for small UAVs

Logos has developed a variety of UAV sensor payloads, including the Hermes platform-agnostic, multi-sensor wide area persistent surveillance pod. It has daylight and infrared cameras, onboard control, and processing hardware.

Logos also makes the Redkite wide-area persistent surveillance system in a small, adaptable pod that weighs less than 30 pounds. Redkite is for manned and unmanned aircraft, and uses an electro-optical camera and onboard processing to provide a constant stream of real-time, geographically tagged images.

The company also makes the Kestrel and LEAPS wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) solutions for deployment on a wide range of platforms.

On this contract Logos will do the work in Fairfax, Va.; Yuma, Ariz.; Raleigh, N.C.; Dallas; Los Angeles; Boston; and Bridgewater, Va., and should be finished by June 2018.

For more information contact Logos Technologies online at www.logostech.net, or the Naval Air Warfare Center-Lakehurst at www.navair.navy.mil.