IDEX 2013 16 febbraio 2013 14:52
Selex ES, a Finmeccanica company, has completed a flight trials campaign that saw its widely used Gabbiano radar installed on the company’s Falco UAS. The trials, which took place in Bulgaria, allowed the T-20 version of the Gabbiano to demonstrate a number of modes including air to sea surveillance with Track While Scan (TWS), high resolution ground mapping (Spot/Strip-SAR), ship target imaging and classification with ISAR mode (Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar), navigation with ground mapping and weather avoidance.
“The open-architecture of the Falco made installing the Gabbiano radar a simple matter of adapting the UAV’s nose bay” said Selex ES’ Fabio Pauluzzo, adding “The successful combination of our Falco and Gabbiano product families will allow Selex ES to provide a more versatile tactical UAV solution for typical MALE multi-sensor missions.”
The flight campaign highlighted how the Gabbiano T-20’s light weight, low power consumption, ease of installation and advanced performance allowed it to improve the Falco’s long-range surveillance capabilities. At up to 160 nautical miles over sea and ground, the Gabbiano was able to provide air to surface surveillance modes and high resolution imaging information.
In addition to this success, the Falco family of UAS continues to improve; other recent trials saw the new EVO variant of the Falco prove over three months of flights its extended endurance and increased payload capacity, exceeding 18 hours and 100kg respectively.