Logos Technologies, a leader in wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) systems, announced today that it successfully demonstrated its infrared BlackKite-I WAMI system for NATO and other officials attending the ArcticX 2022 exercise, held last week in Denmark.
Designed for the payload bay of the Integrator UAS, a tactical unmanned aircraft produced by Boeing Insitu, the lightweight BlackKite-I sensor was used to image a target area during ArcticX22.
“An Insitu Integrator carrying the BlackKite-I WAMI system was flown over a local island,” said Alan Murdoch, VP of International Programs for Logos Technologies, “and the wide-area imagery we collected over that area was clear and stable for the entire time we were on station.”
Typically operating at an altitude of 5,000-12,000 feet, BlackKite-I can image a city-sized area in real time, day and night. The system’s Multi-Modal Edge Processor then converts gigabytes of collected data into geo-tagged imagery that can be stored locally and/or immediately streamed to users on the ground.
“In being so small, yet so powerful, BlackKite-I brings an organic, force-multiplying WAMI capability to the tactical commander,” said Murdoch, “which is why there has been such strong interest in it.”
Kicked off last year, the ArcticX exercise is an initiative of the IRSA Development Group (IDG), a consortium of multinational companies, including Boeing, developing a subscription-based persistent monitoring system incorporating sensors, satellites, aircraft, ground stations and command-and-control networks.
It’s a mainly sea-focused architecture (for the Arctic, and ultimately elsewhere) and Dave “Funky” Funkhouser, Insitu’s Director of International Business Development, said, “We definitely see BlackKite-I playing supporting roles in the surveillance of littoral areas, islands, ports, fishing villages, oil rigs, and offshore wind farms.”
Following the success of ArcticX 2022, Murdoch said that Logos Technologies has received a number of serious inquiries from NATO and other partner nation attendees.