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Home » Trimble on the Case » Aerial Common Sensor Reborn

Aerial Common Sensor Reborn

ACS-logo.jpg

You might think the Army would still be shy over pub­lic­ity for the Aerial Common Sensor (ACS, for short).

Some of you will recall that ACS was the acqui­si­tion pro­gram that got can­celled in January 2006 in a most embar­rass­ing fash­ion. Somehow, Lockheed Martin promised the Army that they could squeeze a 20,000-pound sen­sor on an air­craft with only 14,000lbs of extra room and the Army bought it.

There were lots of rea­sons and jus­ti­fi­ca­tions given for the over­sight, but, really, it was just a dumb mis­take. The army threw away $200 mil­lion and five years of wasted time.

So it was a bit sur­pris­ing this week to see ACS back in an Army news release.

Of course, the need remains to replace the Armys RC-​​7 and RC-​​12 with a spy air­craft built after the Apple IIe com­puter gen­er­a­tion. (The Navys need to replace the EP-​​3 also lurks in the back­ground, but they have other options than ACS.)

So, for the Army, the need remains, but so does the ques­tion: How?

The ACS is sup­posed to be a plat­form that can see all and hear all. In the intel­li­gence world, that means you need a very sophis­ti­cated TV cam­era and an antenna receiver that can pick up every­thing from a high-​​bandwidth fire con­trol radar sys­tem to a low-​​bandwidth cell phone held by the trigger-​​man of an impro­vised explo­sive device.

That is ask­ing a lot for any one sen­sor to do.

With so many com­pet­ing demands for cash, a next-​​generation spy air­craft may not be at the top of the Armys bud­get pri­or­ity list.

Look for the Army to start cheap with an off-​​the-​​shelf sen­sor. One can­di­date often floated in indus­try cir­cles is Northrop Grummans Airborne Signals Intelligence Payload (ASIP). It is already fly­ing aboard the U-​​2 spy plane and is selected for two unmanned air­craft the RQ-​​4 Global Hawk and MQ-​​9B Predator.

The TV cam­era — also known in the mil­i­tary as a charge-​​coupled device — may be added to this sys­tem, or that part of the pay­load could be out­sourced to another unmanned air­craft, such as the armys RQ-​​7 Shadow or MQ-​​12 Warrior.

– Stephen Trimble

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April 2nd, 2007 | Trimble on the Case | 242315 Comments »http://defensetech.org/2007/04/02/aerial-common-sensor-reborn/Aerial+Common+Sensor+Reborn2007-04-02+15%3A11%3A54Ward You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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