Affordable, Rapidly-Deployed Maritime Domain Awareness System
At the Paris Air Show next week BIRD Aerosystems – manufacturers of special mission aircraft solutions (ASIO) and airborne missile protection systems (APMS) – will launch the Ocean Surveillance Control and Reconnaissance (OSCAR) solution, aimed at fulfilling maritime protection missions by providing advanced intelligence and threat assessment.
OSCAR is a fully autonomous multi-sensor maritime awareness system that complements the ASIO business line and is fully integrated with BIRD’s Mission Management System (MSIS). Combined with a secure over-the-cloud deployment and multi-sensor integration, it is an affordable, rapidly deployable Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) solution, delivering real-time intelligence and threat assessments for the vessels within the country’s areas of interest. Alongside the OSCAR, BIRD will also present its SPREOS directed infrared countermeasure (DIRCM) system in its latest production configuration.
“Fully autonomous and personally customised for the needs of each customer, BIRD’s OSCAR solution drives operational costs down and detection probabilities up, and I am confident that it will be a real game-changer in the field of maritime surveillance and patrol,” commented Co-CEO, Ronen Factor. “The OSCAR solution and the SPREOS DIRCM are two of our latest innovative and advanced solutions, that demonstrate BIRD’s unique capability of combining operational know-how with high-end technology and engineering capability.”
OSCAR is an ideal solution for a nation’s maritime protection needs, as it provides 24/7 protection of the maritime domain and Tier 1 Level prevention of illegal activities at sea such as Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, oil theft, smuggling and illegal transshipment, as well as for Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) monitoring. The fully autonomous, advanced multi-sensor system applies machine-learning algorithms to real-time data sources such as satellite and terrestrial AIS, satellite SAR/EO/IR, LRIT, coastal radars, tactical sensors and more, using it to detect, analyse and prioritise suspicious vessels while providing automatic alerts to the user.
Once OSCAR detects potential threats, it plans an effective flight plan for the ASIO special mission aircraft, which is then loaded into the MSIS mission management system to enable an effective surveillance mission. Additionally, OSCAR receives real-time tactical sensor data from the aircraft during the mission, data which is then further analysed for detection of possible additional threats.
BIRD Aerosystems will also present its patented Self Protection Radar Electro-Optic System (SPREOS) DIRCM, which combines a radar-based confirmation sensor and an active laser jammer to ensure optimal protection against different man-portable air defence system (MANPADS) threat types. The patented SPREOS conducts threat confirmation to ensure zero false alarms, hence jamming will be activated only once the threat has been confirmed and analysed.
