New ISTAR Aircraft Capabilities for Wide Area Persistent Surveillance

New ISTAR Aircraft Capabilities for Wide Area Persistent Surveillance

With the upsurge in global tensions and the growing probability of wide armed conflicts between states, the importance of strategic surveillance capabilities has come to the forefront. For ensuring readiness during routine, tension, and operational advantages in times of war, it is imperative to be able to monitor and track enemy forces, track rapidly mobile threats like SSM missile launchers and SAM batteries, achieve an accurate Electronic Order of the Battlefield, and produce mass targets under any weather and visibility conditions. Most recent conflicts involve asymmetric warfare, which is characterized by “hide and pop-up” low signature activities, concealment, deception, high mobility, and short exposure time of potential targets.

To meet these challenges many nations are investing in airborne strategic Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) capabilities. Modern ISTAR systems are multi-mission multi-sensor Special Mission Aircraft providing high performance at high altitudes and standoff, onboard processing in real-time of multi-sensor data, and dissemination of surveillance and target information over secured line of sight and SATCOM communication.

Israel Aerospace Industries’ innovative systems and sensors subsidiary, ELTA Systems Ltd. (IAI/ELTA), is one of Israel’s leading Defence Systems companies. IAI/ELTA has a long and proven record as a world leader in radar, Signal Intelligence, Self-Protection, and Communication systems design and production.

Since 2003 IAI/ELTA has pioneered the development of high-performance business jet based Special Mission Aircraft for AEW&C, ISTAR, MPA and SIGINT applications, with multiple such aircraft in operation and in production for Air Forces, Navies and Special Organizations world-wide. The Israel Air Force relies on IAI/ELTA for their AEW&C, ISTAR and SIGINT aircraft.

The ELI-3150 ISTAR is designed to provide persistent standoff ISR in all weather and visibility conditions. Data collected from all sensors is processed, analyzed and converted in real-time into actionable intelligence and distributed to commanders at strategic, operative and tactical levels. Offering a high level of flexibility, the ISTAR aircraft can be deployed for a multitude of missions and adapt to a variety of battlefield situations.

The ELI-3150 ISTAR is a flexible solution which can be implemented on a variety of platforms, both large-body and mid-size business jets, Bombardier Global 6500 / Challenger 650, Gulfstream G550 / G280.

The ELI-3150 ISTAR is a powerful surveillance and reconnaissance system that constitutes an asset of strategic importance to user nations. Operating at high speed and altitude, at very long standoff ranges, and in all weather and visibility conditions, the ISTAR delivers persistent, high resolution, wide area coverage to non-obtrusively monitor neighboring territories and assess the posture of potential adversaries during times Other Than War (OTW).

In times of war the airborne system quickly delivers decisive real time battlefield intelligence and targeting information, when and where needed. This versatile system supports: intelligence readiness (hostile activity indication & warning; Intelligence Preparation of Battle (IPB); target generation; and Battle Damage Assessment (BDA). It also provides effective support for disaster relief, environmental monitoring, earth resources exploration, and of course, Homeland Security (HLS) and
border protection.

The ISTAR aircraft has an advanced, Multi-Mode Wide-Band Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, providing continuous high-fidelity reconnaissance and surveillance of moving, redeploying and stationary ground targets over wide terrain from stand-off range in all weather and visibility conditions. The sensor enables wide-area Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging, and wide-area GMTI (ground moving targets detection and tracking). A high rate, wide-area Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI) mode automatically detects and tracks moving ground targets in a large area of interest with a very high revisit rate. SPOT SAR mode supports super resolutions to detect small disturbances and changes in a terrain surface, to indicate irregular fine manmade activity. Wide-area, high-resolution SAR imaging supports target generation via automatic algorithms. In addition, the radar has air-to-sea capability, including target classification RS and ISAR, and an air-to-air capability.

The ability to multi-task SAR and GMTI modes and correlate the data with other sensors, creates an ISTAR system which is more capable and versatile.

The ISTAR aircraft incorporates a wide band, wide coverage high sensitivity SIGINT system.

The ESM/ELINT system detects and analyses the relevant electromagnetic emissions and transmissions (including LPI Radars) in a wide area to produce a complete Electromagnetic Order of Battle picture (EOB) of enemy Radars. The ESM/ELINT system incorporates directional High Probability of Intercept ELINT, combined with ESM system for 360° coverage. The ELINT Sensor intercepts and allows accurate geo-location of low power, low side-lobe last generation radars due to much improved sensitivity. Analysis, classification, identification of radars and weapon systems is based on the emitter characteristics defined in a pre-mission library.

The CSM/COMINT system detects, locates, and monitors ground communication transmitters for surveillance and EOB generation for the communication frequency range. The CSM/COMINT system provides monitoring (by listening), gisting, recording, transcription and translation of clear voice (audio) communications traffic, detection, demodulation, classification and decoding of library data signals, analysis of new and unknown signals.

An EO/IR pod provides long range multispectral high-quality imagery and video for target detection and tracking, as well as classification and recognition. It provides real-time, wide area, highly detailed EO/IR imagery. The EO/IR can be operated in manual or enslaved mode.

The communications and data links suite supports secure voice, data and video communication including, wide band Air-to-Ground Line-of-Sight (LOS) data link for voice, image, video and data communication with the ground, and wide band Beyond-Line-of-Sight (BLOS) SATCOM for voice and data communication. The communications suite is adapted to the customer’s existing communications infrastructure.

The ISTAR aircraft includes a Self-Protection System that supports operations in hostile areas, combining active and passive missile detection sensors and various active and passive protection means.

The ISTAR’s sensors generate a huge quantity of data, which is automatically processed via the aircraft’s integrated Airborne Mission Management System. Configured with six to eight operator workstations, this highly evolved system facilitates real-time data exploitation and C2. It features software that implements IAI/ELTA’s unique processing tools and the latest automation technologies, including AI and ML, to reduce operator workload and improve performance and efficiency. The airborne mission system is complemented by a Ground Mission System that is used for mission preparation, real-time data exploitation and in-depth data analysis. It also provides extended data storage.

Lessons learned from major conflicts in the last decade show that traditional ISR systems suffer major deficiencies in view of asymmetric challenges. These deficiencies have their origin in limited arena coverage and limited data-processing capabilities. IAI/ELTA’s ELI-3150 ISTAR aircraft represents a new generation of multi-mission high-performance ISTAR, operating at high-speed and high-altitude, with capabilities of continuous high-fidelity reconnaissance and surveillance of moving, redeploying and stationary ground targets over wide areas of interest from stand-off position in all-weather conditions.

For more information,
please contact our experts at: corpmkg@iai.co.il