ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. – Electro-optical sensors experts at the Raytheon Co. will provide the U.S. Army with airborne targeting sensors under term of a contract announced Friday worth nearly half a billion dollars.
Officials of the Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., are asking the Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems segment in McKinney, Texas, to build Common Sensor Payload (CSP) systems for Army manned and unmanned aircraft per a $427.3 million five-year contract, which includes spare parts and engineering support.
The Raytheon CSP is an integrated advanced targeting system for airborne intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR) and targeting to enable battlefield commanders to use an airborne tactical sensor's geo-location data for real-time targeting of coordinate-seeking weapons.
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The sensor provides high-definition sensor imagery, and also has a high-accuracy advanced multi-color diode pumped laser produced by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. in Poway, Calif.
The sensor also has a sensitive range receiver, improved precision inertial sensors, advanced geo-positioning algorithms, precise internal and external event timing, and error propagation to generate real-time targeting information, Raytheon officials say.
The primary mission of the EO/IR sensor payload is to provide enhanced visual imagery to augment existing electronic sensors that will enhance low-visibility and night navigation, interception, observation and surveillance; insertion and extraction operations; combat search and rescue (SAR); identification; real-time situational awareness and threat warning; reconnaissance and surveillance as well as visit, board, search, and seizure operations.
The CSP generates high-definition imagery, and can transfer target coordinates in real time from the sensor to weapons to reduce the time it takes from target detection to target attack. The sensor meets guildelines of the U.S. military and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) for target location and error knowledge.
The CSP has been installed on the Army MQ-1C Gray Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), as well as on a variety of manned reconnaissance and attack helicopters.
On this contract Raytheon will do the work in locations determined with each order, and should be finished by September 2024. For more information contact Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems online at www.raytheon.com, or the Army Contracting Command-Aberdeen Proving Ground at https://acc.army.mil/contractingcenters/acc-apg.
