WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio – U.S. Air Force researchers needed help in developing infrared sensors to enable combat aircraft to search wide areas covertly. They found a solution from the Georgia Tech Applied Research Corp. in Atlanta.
Officials of the Multispectral Sensing & Detection Division of the Air Force Research Laboratory Sensors Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, announced a $3.6 million contract to Georgia Tech on Tuesday as part of the Multi-Spectral Sensing Technologies R&D (MuSTeR) program.
This contract is to develop infrared (IR) sensor technology for enhanced electro optical and infrared sensors for airborne search and track applications.
Overall, MuSTeR seeks to enhance the state-of-the-art in U.S. military sensor research by using the entire electromagnetic spectrum to deliver next-generation capabilities for global persistent surveillance.
Georgia Tech joins other MuSTeR contractors, which include the Northrop Grumman Corp. Mission Systems segment in Linthicum, Md.; Sensing Strategies Inc. (SSi) in Pennington N.J.; BlackHorse Solutions Inc. in Herndon, Va.; and Senseeker Engineering Inc. in Santa Barbara, Calif.
These contractors are looking into test flight of sensor systems; low-cost infrared search and track (LC-IRST) system design tradeoffs; cloud clutter suppression algorithms and processing; and machine learning techniques with the potential to improve overall IRST detection performance.
Infrared search and track capability is important for modern aircraft because it can detect and track enemy aircraft and missiles without giving away its presence. Active search systems like radar, for example, must emit electronic signals that tip off the enemy to its presence; it's like shining a flashlight in a darkened room.
Other focus areas of the MuSTeR program are multiband multifunction radio frequency sensing; laser radar technology; passive radio frequency sensing; and distributed radio frequency sensing.
For more information, contact Georgia Tech Applied Research online at https://gtrc.gatech.edu/gtarc/, or the Multispectral Sensing & Detection Division of the Air Force Research Laboratory Sensors Directorate at www.afrl.af.mil.
