Army fuses airborne sensor lab with ground networks — Defense Systems
At the Army’s C4ISR On-the-Move Event 2009 in September, Lockheed Martin Corp. demonstrated its new Airborne Multi-Intelligence Laboratory. The AML aircraft, a repurposed Gulfstream III corporate jet, was converted to a test platform for evaluating the integration of multiple intelligence-gathering sensors onboard a single aircraft. The flight team includes analysts who correlate the intelligence data and make it available to ground units over a network connection.
“A little over 10 or 11 months ago, Lockheed Martin made investment decisions in particular that looked at where the customer set was going — some of their higher priority needs,” said Jim Quinn, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems and Global Services-Defense. “This was driven both internationally as well as domestically, and the importance of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in supporting operations around the globe.”
Lockheed Martin initially intended that AML would provide its civilian and defense customers a way to evaluate how well technologies worked together, and provide a testbed for connecting sensors to enterprise service-oriented architectures such as the Distributed Common Ground System, Quinn said during a press briefing at the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting in early October. Now, the company is considering whether to partner with contract aviation companies to lease the capability to the DOD and other government agencies on a contingency basis, he said.
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