Boeing King Air 350ER üzerine yerleştirilmiş yeni ISR çözümü RAMIS'i fuarda tanıtmış.Adamlar küçücük uçağa ne varsa ellerinde koymuşlar.Flir,lidar,sar radar,satcom kabiliyeti ve Comint (communications intelligence)-Elint(electronic intelligence)-Imint(imagery intelligence)-Sigint (signals intelligence) ne lazımsa var yani.Yıllardır bize lazım olan istihbarat uçağı böyle birşeydi işte.Muhtemelen fiyatıda 40 milyon civarını geçmez.500 milyon dolara böyle 10 uçaklı bir filo her işimiz görürürdü bizim.
Farnborough 2014: Boeing showcases RAMIS multi-INT solution
Boeing showcased its Beechcraft King Air 350ER-based Reconfigurable Airborne Multi-Intelligence System (RAMIS) testbed for the first time to reporters at its St Louis facility in Missouri in late June, ahead of the Farnborough International Airshow.
Developed by Boeing's Electronic and Sensor Solutions division, RAMIS sets itself apart from other King Air 350ER-based intelligence and surveillance solutions in that it is a modular solution equipped for multi-intelligence (multi-INT) missions, as opposed to the predominantly single-mission roles of its peers.
RAMIS builds on the company's earlier work on the King Air 350-based 'Yellow Jacket' Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT)/SIGINT demonstrator for the US Army (this Yellow Jacket aircraft is now the RAMIS demonstrator being flown out of Boeing's St Louis facility in Missouri).
Mike Ferguson, business development lead for RAMIS, set out Boeing's thinking behind the programme, as well as some of the aircraft's key attributes and its potential market.
"There are five things you have to think about when building an ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] aircraft. These are: What is it that I am trying to collect data on (is it a truck, person, ship, or command post); What does this target do that differentiates itself from the background and allows me to find it, and what data am I trying to collect on that target; What is the terrain - mountainous (a radar won't work, so you need a sensor that looks directly down) or flat lowlands (where radar or wide-area surveillance [WAS] detection systems do work); What is the vegetation - is the target in the open or under a triple jungle canopy (which requires [LIght Detection And Ranging] LIDAR or foliage-penetration radar); and how big is the search area - is it a city or the Pacific Ocean?"
The internal workings of the RAMIS multi-INT platform. It features two or three mission consoles, with data being analysed both on- and off-board the aircraft. (Boeing)
As Ferguson explained, once you start examining these different mission requirements you then start to tailor your solution and technologies to best collect the desired data. In the case of RAMIS, Boeing has looked at the five missions aspects and opted to equip its solution with modular sensors to be able to fly different missions throughout the course of a day.
"Modularity and reconfigurability of systems and sensors is a key feature of RAMIS. You can fly a different sortie against a different target in the morning and evening, and change the aircraft's configuration to match that," he noted.
In order to fulfil this multi-INT mission set, RAMIS employs a suite of communications intelligence (COMINT), electronic intelligence (ELINT), imagery intelligence (IMINT), and signals intelligence (SIGINT) sensors fitted in an extended nose section and an underbelly 'canoe' fairing divided into four under-fuselage payload bays.
In the extended nose section, the modular mission equipment comprises the option of an L-3 Wescam MX-15Di and -15HDi retractable electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) sensor turret, a Thales UK Ku-band I-Master Wide Area Airborne Surveillance (WAAS) turret, and a ground moving target indicator/synthetic aperture radar (GMTI/SAR).
The RAMIS' Wide Area Motion Imaging sensor takes city-wide stills imagery to the resolution that individual persons can be identified and tracked. (Boeing)
The underbelly 'canoe' fairing can house a gimballed EO/IR turret, WAAS equipment, Wide Area Motion Imaging (WAMI), LIDAR systems; FOLiage PENetrating (FOPEN) radar, GMTI/SAR, hyper-spectral sensors, ELINT/SIGINT systems, communications systems, and datalinks.
A dorsal satellite communications (SATCOM) radome is also fitted to the upper body of the aircraft.
Ferguson explained that the RAMIS is geared towards a wide-ranging mission set that includes tactical intelligence collection (pattern of life, and so on); direct action support (real-time imagery to support troops in contact); border surveillance; littoral surveillance; smuggling detection, law enforcement; search and rescue. While he declined to name names, he did say that customers have already been signed up and that the aircraft is now being flown operationally.
"The two types of customers that we see for RAMIS are those who are adding additional capabilities to an existing [single mission] aircraft, or those who are looking to bring a new capability into service," he explained, adding that "the cost of these [King Air 350ER-based] platforms has now come down to the extent that many countries can now afford to operate a multi-INT asset such as this."
ANALYSIS
The RAMIS is the latest in a long line of King Air-based ISR platforms that have proven themselves to have been the great un-sung heroes of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with special mission variants performing a variety of critical and often classified missions for coalition forces.
Dubbed 'funnies' on account of the often exotic kit they must carry for their clandestine roles, these King Air 350ERs have been used for a wide variety of missions, such as electronic attack (EA); ISR; intelligence, surveillance, targeting and reconnaissance (ISTAR); COMINT; SIGINT; ELINT; IMINT; and counter-improvised explosive device (C-IED).
What makes the King Air 350ER so well suited for these wide-ranging mission sets is that it can carry the necessary kit in a package that is relatively inexpensive to procure, operate, and support.
According to IHS Jane's All the World's Aircraft: Development & Production (JAWA), King Air 350ER 'funnies' already in circulation with militaries around the world include those operated by Australia, Colombia, Iraq, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, the UK, and the US.
As recorded by JAWA, the Australian Army utilises four King Air 350s with 173 Squadron at Oakey, Queensland, for command, control, communications, and surveillance duties; the Colombian Air Force operates a single King Air 350 as well as a King Air 300 in the ELINT role; Iraq is set to field up to 24 King Air 350ER aircraft for ISR missions, which are believed to be provisioned for hardpoints for the carriage of AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles; the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force operates seven 350s (designated LR-2) in reconnaissance and communications roles; two King Air 350ERs were delivered to the Royal Saudi Air Force in 2011 in what is thought to be a similar configuration to UK Shadow R.1 platforms; the Swiss Air Force operates a single King Air 350ER for photo survey duties as well as light transport; and the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) has received five Shadow R.1 King Air 350ERs that are operated by 14 Squadron at RAF Waddington under an urgent operational requirement for operations in Afghanistan.
By far the largest King Air 350ER 'funny' operator though is the United States. The US Air Force procured 37 aircraft under 'Project Liberty' designated as MC-12W, which it has fielded in both Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition to RAMIS, Boeing is also leading the US Army's Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System effort to field a bespoke C-IED platform.
Having cut its teeth as the special mission platform of choice in the 'Global War on Terrorism' wars of Afghanistan and Iraq, the future looks bright for the King Air 350ER with the need for airborne surveillance and intelligence gathering capabilities only set to grow.
http://www.janes.com/article/40724/farnborough-2014-boeing-showcases-ramis-multi-int-solution
