Air Force to boost flexibility of reconnaissance aircraft by adding hyperspectral 3-D imaging sensor

The U.S. Air Force is planning to hire a contractor in the coming months to demonstrate a new sensor suite that blends powerful multi-mode cameras with a laser-imaging system in a compact package. Air Force officials want this new AgilePod sensor to be small enough to fit inside its AgilePod modular sensor pod, which then could go onto either a manned U-2S Dragon Lady spy plane or an unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). AgilePod is a Lego-like system of between three and five sections, each of which houses a different sensor. The new sensor suite will include a hyperspectral imager, yet it’s unclear which company could be the source of this system.