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2020-08-09

Firebird Shows The Power of Open Architecture

Northrop Grumman Corporation recently completed the integration and testing of Overwatch Imaging’s TK-9 Earthwatch sensor. The sensor was integrated in one day as part of ongoing capability flights validating the range of missions the Firebird system can perform for government and commercial customers.

“During this exercise we rapidly integrated sensors and utilised Firebird’s operational flexibility to demonstrate the system’s unique capability,” said Jane Bishop, vice president and general manager, autonomous systems, Northrop Grumman. “We leveraged Firebird’s communications suite and data processing power to patch in customers to our virtual feed, so they were able to view flight activities in real time.”

Over a four-day period, Firebird demonstrated several data collection missions, including wide-area surveillance, pattern of life monitoring, route clearance, search and rescue, high-value subject tracking, hostage recovery, and fire hotspot detection. The team carried out four over 10 hour manned flights with 100 per cent aircraft availability for day and night operations.

Northrop Grumman’s Firebird product line delivers medium altitude, long endurance multi-mission flexibility and affordability. Available in autonomous and optionally piloted configurations, Firebird is designed to provide ISR payload and cockpit flexibility through truly open architecture and plug-and-play payload integration. The system’s unique hardware- and software enable users to carry out a wide range of ISR missions for 30 plus hours at approximately 25,000 feet.

New Roles in New Environments

Firebird is equipped with wide band Line-of-Sight (LoS) and Beyond-Line-of-Sight (BLoS) data links, onboard storage and accessible processing for rapid data exploitation to ensure timely completion of missions. The system’s unique design allows sensors to be changed rapidly as plug-and-play devices, reducing ‘first time’ payload integration time from months to days and enabling rapid field changes in less than an hour to increase operational availability and tailored mission suitability.

Overwatch Imaging provides automated airborne imaging systems for piloted and unmanned aircraft. Their TK-9 Earthwatch sensor has a flexible onboard AI-enabled automatic image processing engine that allows the system to adapt to new roles in new environments very quickly, from natural disaster emergency management to border security patrol and large-scale infrastructure inspection.

The flexibility of the Firebird extends through the ownership experience. Northrop Grumman has established a system to allow customers to speed the time from decision to delivery. Owning Firebird will come with not only the aircraft, but the option to create add-ons that can adapt to needs, whether it’s different configurations, mission-specific payloads, scalable ground control stations, and even different product support packages.

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