Wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) sensor helps Blackjack unmanned aircraft monitor a city-size area at once
WASHINGTON – A new wide-area motion imagery sensor could make the RQ-21A Blackjack an even more powerful tool for the war fighter, allowing the small UAV to simultaneously monitor five square miles. C4ISRnet reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
21 Aug. 2020 -- Officials of Logos Technologies LLC in Fairfax, Va. announced last month that their company won a $6.7 million contract to deliver two wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) sensor prototypes to U.S. Naval Air Systems Command. Dubbed Cardcounter by the Navy, the 28-pound infrared sensor is adapted from the company’s commercial BlackKite product.
The Navy uses Blackjacks to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance coverage day or night. Able to launch without a runway, the Blackjack has a range of about 50 kilometers and can stay in the air for as long as 16 hours.
Blackjack small unmanned aircraft already host several sophisticated sensors, including full-motion video, infrared marker, laser range finder, and a communications relay package, but Cardcounter offers a new capability: the ability to view a city-sized area.
Related: Army asks industry for wide-area electro-optical sensors for manned and unmanned aircraft
John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics