By B.C. Kessner
Northrop Grumman‘s [NOC] aim of providing an all weather surveillance capability for small UAVs will come a step closer to realization in the coming months as flight tests and deliveries begin for its STARLite payload, the company said Monday.
“The exciting thing about this is a full-up SAR/GMTI (synthetic aperture radar/ground moving target indicator) radar that’s basically brought down to the size and weight for use on small UAV platforms,” Jack Pledger, director IRCM business development at Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, told reporters at the Air Force Association annual conference at National Harbor.
The ZPY-1 STARLite is now under contract to the Army Communications and Electronics Command for its ERMP MQ-1C Sky Warrior unmanned aerial system (UAS) and MQ-8B Fire Scout FCS Class IV UAS programs. It is a small, lightweight SAR/GMTI radar used to support tactical operations.
Deliveries start next month of an initial batch of 12 STARLites for the Warrior program, Pledger said. Flight tests for the system will begin this month on Warrior and surrogate aircraft, he added. A reliability test program is ongoing and will conclude in October.
The system weighs less than 80 pounds, about 25 percent less than current payloads, and draws less than 800 watts of power, Pledger said. Its three modes of operation are SAR, GMTI and Maritime Moving Target Indicator (MMTI), enabling it to conduct tactical reconnaissance, all-weather wide area surveillance, stationary and moving target detection, and maritime sea search missions.
Resolution is down to one foot on the moving target indicator mode and target locations can be overlaid in a digital map or nautical chart, he said. The company has developed a post-processing coherent change detection (CCD) feature that can tell not just that a target has moved, but also show the track taken based on disturbed earth readings from the high-resolution system.
There are several spiral programs ongoing to further reduce the size and provide greater capabilities than what is currently being demonstrated, Pledger added. While there are no further requirements established at this point, he said the company would love the opportunity to move the system to other platforms such as Predator and Reaper or the Navy’s Fire Scout, all of which could benefit from the lighter weight and power requirements as compared to current payload systems.
STARLite’s operational date remains on schedule for next year, he said.