USAF invests in SWIR camera to improve airborne surveillance

Unmanned Northrop Grumman Global Hawk UAV The need for unmanned aerial vehicles that can provide 24-hour surveillance and deliver underst...

Unmanned Northrop Grumman Global Hawk UAV

The need for unmanned aerial vehicles that can provide 24-hour surveillance and deliver understandable imagery still exists among Air Force warfighters.

US Air Force's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program office recently provided nearly $750,000 of follow-on funding for a SBIR effort that will give the warfighter a high-definition, short-wave infrared (SWIR) camera for airborne surveillance applications.
Toyon Research Corp., located in Goleta, California, and its subcontractor, FLIR Systems, will be transitioning Phase II SBIR technology into a high-definition SWIR camera. The effort will include the design and fabrication of a high-definition SWIR camera using the latest in small pixel-pitch, high-definition focal plane array technology.

The novel camera components to be designed under this program include the SWIR lens assembly, camera housing, back-end electronics, sensor configuration and control, imagery data serialization and other associated algorithms.