UAV and Airborne Solutions

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be more and more important in intelligence and military reconnaissance.

 

They can be deployed to a threat scenario without the need of jeopardising human lives. The UAV can fly controlled remotely by a base station into the target area, for example, to conduct radio reconnaissance tasks. For evaluation, results can either be sent directly to the base station outside of the scenario by radio transmission (data link) or they can be stored within the UAVs and be evaluated later in the base station or elsewhere.

 

MEDAV offers the radio reconnaissance equipment from antennas to computers in suitable hardware and software: the processing computers are mounted to racks that fulfil all the high technical standards in regards of scarce space and environmental requirements. MEDAV has a well-defined set of products, know-how in engineering and projects in small and large dimensions, also together with experienced partners

 

What are the advantages of COMINT in UAVs?

COMINT in UAVs means that the receivers can be freely placed and moved over the target area. The higher the receivers are located in the air, the better is the receiving range for signals. The signals show less disturbances due to buildings, trees, and hills. Thus, UAVs can gather information in dangerous regions (VUHF) easier, safer and more reliably.

 



 

 



Principles of COMINT in UAVs

Typically, a COMINT system for UAVs consists of two functional parts

The airborne part integrated into the UAVs carries the equipment for receiving and signal conditioning, as well as the transmission equipment for the contact to the base station.

 

Professional Options for airborne part

 Mobile HF VHF UHF Radio Intercept System MoRIS

 COMMS-ESM / COMINT system CRS-8000


The other part is the base station on the ground, also with transmission equipment for the contact to the UAVs and equipment and staff for evaluation of the information delivered by the UAVs.

 

Professional Options for the base station:

  Signal Analysis with CCI-Offline, OC-6040
  System for evaluation, tactical consequences.IFS-8000

 

 


The exact definition of the tasks at the two places depends among others

 

 on the size of the available UAV

 available power supply

 

The larger the payload is, the more receivers and processing can be done at the UAV directly.

 

Functionality and System Design

Intercept Monitoring for VUHF (HF)

According to user defined mission, a defined range of wideband signals can be analysed. Once a mission is defined and activated, the processing is fulfilled completely automated: The result of the analysis are stored - upon request they may also be transmitted to the base station.
VUHF receivers and processing capabilities are needed.

    

Direction Finding

Direction finding and locating can be performed when several receivers are on board. Due to the higher number of receivers, a higher payload is necessary.

   

Automated processing of data, storage

The greatest advantage at MEDAV products is the automated processing during data acquisition. This feature allows for meaningful processing and storing of relevant information already on-board.

   

 Brochure: Intercept Monitoring and Direction Finding in UAVs

 

 

 

MEDAV provides products for the involved functionality. Depending on the user needs and the special needs according to the UAV involved, a project will be enrolled to apply our products to special needs.

 

 special environmental conditional (temperature, shock resistance etc.)

 power supply

 payload

 task to be solved: size to be defined according to user needs (e.g. data throughput, bandwidth, processing)

 

A system consists of

 

 Antenna

 Receivers for gathering signals

 PC for processing tasks

 Rack for receivers and PCs

 Software for processing; intercept monitoring, optional: direction finding, ESM


 

Airborne Systems ATR-8000

ATR-8000 is a family of modular and scalable COMINT payloads, dedicated for the acquisition and processing of radio emissions. A flexible software allows on board processing and the storage of identified wide band signal scenarios. MEDAV supports all steps in the design and evaluation procedure for dedicated platforms with know how, expertise and measurement support. ATR-8000 includes the equipment for the ground station for the control of the mission and the analysis of gathered signals and information based on the IFS-8000 analysis and reporting system.

MoRISDescription
Small

Intercept Monitoring


Automatic Processing in the UAVs


Analysis at the base station with additional hardware and software


Storage capabilities



ATR-8000Description
Mini

Emitter detection based on scanning wideband receiver

Two wideband receivers for wideband scanning and wideband recording (up to 2 MHz instantaneous bandwidth)

Two hand-off receiver for narrowband signal acquisition and processing

One operator work place

Lite

Emitter direction finding and location based on a two channel receiver system using time multiplexing of the antenna signals

One wideband receiver for wideband scanning or wideband recording (up to 2 MHz instantaneous bandwidth)

Two hand-off receiver for narrowband signal acquisition and processing

One operator work place

Compact

Same features as ATR COMINT Lite

Full parallel five channel direction finding system

Four hand-off receiver for narrowband signal acquisition and processing

Two operator work places, the system can be operated by one to two operators, maximum one operator per dedicated operator role

Extended

Same features as ATR COMINT Compact

Four wideband receivers for:

  • One receiver can be used for wideband recording (up to 16 MHz instantaneous bandwidth)
  • Up to four receivers can be combined for very fast scanning and emitter detection
  • Up to four receivers can be used for narrow band extraction with 16 channels per receiver out of a 24 MHz band
LPI-Signal (Low probability of intercept) support

Three operator work places, the system can be operated by one to three operators, maximum one operator per dedicated operator role
Ultra

Same features as ATR COMINT Ultra

Two independent ultra wideband recorder with instantaneous bandwidth up to 100 MHz per channel

Eight wideband receivers for:

  • Two receivers can be used independently for wideband recording (up to 16 MHz instantaneous bandwidth)
  • Up to five receivers can be combined for very fast scanning and emitter detection
  • Up to eight receivers can be used for narrowband extraction with 16 channels per receiver out of a 24 MHz band

Four operator work places, the system can be operated by one to four operators, maximum one operator per dedicated operator role