Industrial Focus MT 3/2022· 87 Demonstrating the ability to counter multiple advanced threats, the tests resulted in confirmation of the decision to integrate C-GEM on the Navy’s Sa’ar 6s, providing a soft-kill defensive layer to complement the C-DOME hard-kill layer. The successful test series marks an important milestone in C-GEM’s continued development, and demonstrates the Navy’s enhanced operational capabilities within modern combat scenarios and evolving anti-ship missile threats. Indo Pacific 2022: Sentient Reveals ViDAR Surface Sentient Vision Systems unveiled its next-generation, AI-enabled Visual Detection and Ranging (ViDAR) Surface system at Indo-Pacific 2022 in Sydney in May. The day-and-night autonomous ocean surface surveillance system can “efficiently detect, track, classify, and filter hundreds of objects” and assist the operator in focusing on targets of interest, both during normal and high threat scenarios, the company stated. The scalable solution, available pod-mounted, is designed for real-time situational awareness and can detect ships, stealthy boats, small boat swarms, buoys, persons in the water, and aircraft. It can be deployed with a range of shore-based and maritime surface platforms, manned or unmanned. The launch of ViDAR Surface comes as the company sets its sights on further international expansion, following several recent contract awards, including: selection for a US DoD Foreign Comparative Technology (FCT) test that will see ViDAR systems integrated into a USMC UAS; a Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard contract that will see ViDAR deployed on new helicopters and current patrol aircraft; European and Middle Eastern applications; and selection for a A$2.1 million ($1.47 million) Australian government grant to establish a sovereign in-house manufacturing facility for ViDAR search and surveillance pods. The ViDAR system – the world’s first passive optical radar – is currently in use with several customers, including the US Coast Guard, and, in 2021, Sikorsky announced it would evaluate the technology as a maritime ISR enhancement for the MH-60 Seahawk. According to Paul Harris, Sentient’s Director of Business Development, these developments place company – which won the Indo Pacific 2022 SME Innovation Award ahead of the start of the expo – in “pole position” to grow markets as well as its share of these markets. “We are determined to remain the key driver of this technology set and its various applications across civilian and defence markets,” he noted, adding that the company has put in place a senior team to realise this expansion, meet customer requirements and boost R&D investments. The company’s flagship products include Kestrel software for land and maritime surveillance and ViDAR. Slovenia Orders 45 Boxers in Four Variants The government of Slovenia, represented by the European procurement organization OCCAR, has signed a contract with ARTEC, the Krauss-Maffei Wegmann/Rheinmetall joint venture, for 45 Boxer wheeled armoured vehicles in four different variants, the companies announced on 17 May. “The Ka2517 antenna is modem- and network-agnostic, enabling voice, data and streaming video with seamless interoperability on GEO and NGSO constellations. It also has the RF performance to operate effectively using frequency-hopping protected waveforms and supports industry-leading low probability of intercept (LPI) and low probability of detection (LPD) requirements,” said Bill Milroy, CTO and chairman of ThinKom. NIC4 Wins New National Guard Bureau Satcom Contract Satcom integrator NIC4 has announced the award of a five-year contract extension from the US National Guard Bureau, extending provision and support of its commercial satcom managed network. The J63 Commercial Satellite Integrated Network (CSIN) II contract ensures commercial satcom provision and support globally. The service is currently supplied by NIC4’s Maverick VSAT (very small aperture terminal) network, under a contract let in 2019. Maverick “provides high-capacity, high-speed, broadband satellite communications for internet and private network communications,” the company states The system also “offers a secure way to connect remote sites and personnel with data, video, telephony and other mission-critical communication methods.” Chad Gatlin, NIC4 CEO, commented “After winning the CSIN network contract in 2019, the partnership that developed between [the] NGB and NIC4 was fundamental to the resilient CSIN network that is in use today. The efficiency and flexibility of our MAVERICK VSAT network provides an exceptional service for a successful mission.” Rafael Tests C-GEM Decoy on Sa’ar 6 Earlier this year, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, alongside the Israeli Navy and MoD, successfully tested the C-GEM naval decoy system onboard a Sa’ar 6-class corvette. C-GEM is an innovative shipborne off-board RF Active Decoy (RFAD) system, protecting naval vessels from anti-ship missiles through electromagnetic spectrum manipulation. It jams and deceives threats from multiple directions, independent of ship manoeuvres. The ThinAir Ka2517 phased array satcom antenna. (Photo: ThinKom) A C-GEM decoy being fired from a Sa’ar 6 corvette. (Photo: Rafael) An artist’s rendering of the ViDAR Surface unit. (Photo: Sentient Vision Systems)
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