A new capability for aircraft flying in poor visibility is being flight tested on a Boeing-727 aircraft. The system is a combination of Synthetic Vision (SV) based on a digital database of ground terrain and an Enhanced Vision System (EVS) based on passive infrared imaging.
Axsys Technologies has acquired Diversified Optical Products, Inc., DIOP for $60 million in cash.
The European Commission has given its approval to an agreement between BAE Systems and Finmeccanica in which the British company essentially withdraws from its UK-based electro-optical sensor business. Under the agreement the two companies have agreed that BAE Systems Avionics and Finmeccanica’s Galileo Avionica SpA will be merged into a new company 75% owned by Finmeccanica and 15% by BAE Systems.
The Jigsaw program to develop a target identification system based on 3-D imaging laser radar (ladar) technology is moving into Phase IIIB. The system is intended to provide multiple views of a target from UAVs and identify targets even when highly obscured.
Uncooled focal plane arrays have mostly been optimized for the long-wave infrared spectrum (LWIR). The reason has mainly been the larger number of LWIR photons available from scenes at ambient temperatures.