Computing Devices (CDC) is planning flight trials of its solid-state mission data recorder (SSMDR)and a datalink connected to the company's sensor control unit and squadron ground systems as part of a potential upgrade to the Theater Airborne Reconnaissance System (TARS), in-service with the US Air National Guard.
The flight trial, planned for July, follows a test last year of the system linked to the tactical reconnaissance system in a UK Royal Air Force Panavia Tornado GR1A. The datalink trial is due in June.
The USANG may upgrade TARS with solid-state recording (instead of the digital tape recorder), giving higher volume storage, a datalink, and, potentially, a synthetic aperture radar, says CDC intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance business manager Laurence Beardmore.
UK-based CDC's sensor control unit manages the data from the TARS electro-optical sensors, including image compression and datalink management, and provides real-time cockpit playback.
The SSMDR provides 50GB recording capability, says Beardmore, and is smaller and lighter than traditional systems, with an improved mean time between failures, he adds.
Beardmore says that the unit contains 32 PCMIA flash-memory cards. The storage capacity of such devices is growing "exponentially", which means the capacity will have expanded to 128GBby 2003, he says.
CDC - a General Dynamics subsidiary - is meanwhile talking to three of the four teams conducting studies into the Watchkeeper unmanned air vehicle requirement for the UK Ministry of Defence. "We will join one of the three teams in the second phase," says Beardmore, adding that CDC is offering ground station technologies.
Source: Flight International
