The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) has certified Jacobs’ KeyRadar in AgilePod for flight testing on commercially operated aircraft under Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airworthiness criteria. The certification adds to Jacobs’ flight campaign with the AFLCMC for certification of Jacobs' newest version of its proprietary KeyRadar product in an aerial system pod.
"The integration of KeyRadar into an aerial system pod brings unique capabilities for ISR and time-critical detection/recognition applications," said Jacobs Critical Mission Solutions senior vice president Steve Arnette.
The flight activity includes technical maturation phase for the AFLCMC, a program to integrate KeyRadar into an aerial system pod and provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and target detection/recognition capabilities from manned and unmanned aircraft.
Jacobs’ KeyRadar is a multi-mission, multi-mode system built on a software-defined radio/radar architecture. The system has integrated multiple bands with sophisticated processing and detection/recognition software to find concealed targets in challenging operational environments.
Jacobs' modular open system architecture will enable users to field new capabilities to operational systems. The program also demonstrated the utility of Jacobs' KeyPAD software has been integrated in KeyRadar for automated human-made object detection to improve system performance.
The radar was packaged in the pod system to meet Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) and Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) standards.
The radar and pod were operated in an unpressurized environment, varying between extreme warm and extreme cold temperatures, to include moisture saturating weather, and were evaluated against engineering, performance and environmental specifications.
"The completion of this flight campaign and certification represents a successful collaboration between our newly integrated team since acquiring KeyW and our partnership with the Air Force in delivering advanced technical solutions to the intelligence mission," Arnette added.
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