General Atomics Demonstrates Lynx SAR on USAF F-16

Released on Monday, August 21, 2006

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., a leading manufacturer of unmanned aircraft and high-resolution surveillance and radar imaging systems, along with its research partner BAE Systems, today announced that it has successfully completed a demonstration of the Lynx Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) in a reconnaissance pod flown on a U.S. Air Force F-16 at Eglin Air Force Base (AFB) in Florida.

"We are excited about the teamwork displayed by BAE Systems and GA-ASI in developing and demonstrating a highly effective ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance] capability for the U.S. Air Force," said Linden P. Blue, president, Reconnaissance Systems Group, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. "A total of 74 images were collected and processed by the team, including a mix of high-resolution spot images, as well as wide field-of-view images at various resolutions."

The flight demonstration is a critical milestone in a two-year cooperative research effort between GA-ASI's Reconnaissance Systems Group and BAE Systems. The ultimate goal of the research is to provide the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Air National Guard with the capability to "fuse" the products of two high-resolution sensors integrated into a single reconnaissance pod. The fused product is designed to provide the Warfighter with target detection and geo-location benefits that exceed the capability of each sensor used singly.

"The successful integration of GA-ASI's Lynx SAR with our reconnaissance pod builds on the capabilities we have been developing as a leader in the transformational market and in situational awareness," said David Hails, BAE Systems vice president for Imaging and Surveillance. BAE Systems currently builds and sustains the Theater Airborne Reconnaissance System (TARS) in an identical pod. "TARS is of great value to the Air Force and Air National Guard, and our current effort advances the next generation of sensor technology to the Warfighter," Hails added.

GA-ASI plans to build upon the success of this flight with a combined SAR and Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) camera data collection at Eglin AFB. This data will be processed using state-of-the-art sensor fusion algorithms developed by BAE Systems, with results expected to be published in late summer.