(Washington, D.C) The complex and fast-changing threat landscape in Europe and the Pacific is leading the U.S. and its allies in the region to vigorously pursue new drones, surveillance technologies and fixed-wing platforms configured for long-range, long-dwell, multi-sensor targeting missions
Finding enemy armored convoys on the back side of a mountain beyond line of sight, supporting ballistic missile defense operations, tracking enemy targets from the sky with optical, multi-spectral and RF sensors and networking time-sensitive combat data across multiple domains in near real time amid war … are all missions U.S., U.K. and NATO fixed-wing surveillance assets will increasingly be expected to perform.
Despite the rapid arrival of smaller kinds of surveillance drones and new kinds of unmanned systems, there is still a pressing need for a new generation of innovations supporting advanced fixed-wing ISR capable of advanced aerial data processing, transmission and command and control.
ISTAR
With this strategic focus in mind, various industry innovators such as Raytheon and Bombardier are introducing a new high-tech, fixed-wing surveillance plane, called ISTAR, for Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance.
The new aircraft, built by Bombardier, designed and modified by Raytheon for the ISTAR mission with support and modification in country by Korean Airlines Defense, is being offered to support the Korean military as well as other key U.S. allies around the globe.