The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is a remotely piloted surveillance aircraft. It was initially designed by Ryan Aeronautical, and known as Tier II+ during development. The Global Hawk performs duties similar to that of the Lockheed U-2. The RQ-4 provides a broad overview and systematic surveillance using high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and long-range electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors with long loiter times over target areas. It can survey as much as 40,000 square miles (100,000 km2) of terrain a day, an area the size of South Korea or Iceland.
A surveillance aircraft is an aircraft used for surveillance—collecting information over time. They are operated by military forces and other government agencies in roles such as intelligence gathering, battlefield surveillance, airspace surveillance, observation, border patrol and fishery protection. This article concentrates on aircraft used in those roles, rather than for traffic monitoring, law enforcement and similar activities.
The Raytheon Company is a major U.S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007. Raytheon is the world's largest producer of guided missiles. On June 9, 2019, Raytheon announced a merger of equals with the aerospace companies of United Technologies.
The Lockheed WC-130 is a high-wing, medium-range aircraft used for weather reconnaissance missions by the United States Air Force. The aircraft is a modified version of the C-130 Hercules transport configured with specialized weather instrumentation including a dropsonde deployment/receiver system and crewed by a meteorologist for penetration of tropical cyclones and winter storms to obtain data on movement, size and intensity.
ISTAR stands for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance. In its macroscopic sense, ISTAR is a practice that links several battlefield functions together to assist a combat force in employing its sensors and managing the information they gather.
Radar configurations and types is an article about listing the different uses of radars.
The Denel Dynamics Seeker is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) manufactured in South Africa by Denel Dynamics. The system is designed to perform tactical reconnaissance in real time and can conduct day and night surveillance in all threat environments.
The usefulness of UAVs for aerial reconnaissance was demonstrated to the United States in the Vietnam War. At the same time, early steps were being taken to use them in active combat at sea and on land, but battlefield unmanned aerial vehicles would not come into their own until the 1980s.
BAE Systems Electronic Systems (ES) is one of three operating groups of BAE Systems Inc., the North American subsidiary of the British global defence contractor BAE Systems Plc.
The Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) is a United States Air Force (USAF) airborne communications relay and gateway system carried by the unmanned EQ-4B and the manned Bombardier E-11A aircraft. BACN enables real-time information flow across the battlespace between similar and dissimilar tactical data link and voice systems through relay, bridging, and data translation in line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight situations. Its ability to translate between dissimilar communications systems allows them to interoperate without modification.
Aeronautics Ltd. is an Israeli company specializing in the manufacturing of Unmanned Aerial Systems, commonly known as drones, for military uses. Since its establishment in 1997, the company's products have been sold to over 20 defense, military and homeland security customers in 15 countries. Its headquarters are in Yavne, Israel.
The Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) is a part of Air Force Space Command of the United States Air Force, located at Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo, Los Angeles County, California. SMC is the Air Force's product center for the development and acquisition of space and missile systems.
CASA FITS is a system that is used on board aircraft from different coast guard services for tactical marine reconnaissance. FITS is predestined for this area of application due to its real-time display of navigation data. FITS was developed by the Spanish branch of the multinational Military Transport Aircraft Division of EADS.
Signals intelligence operational platforms are employed by nations to collect signals intelligence, which is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether between people or between machines, or mixtures of the two. As sensitive information is often encrypted, signals intelligence often involves the use of cryptanalysis. However, traffic analysis—the study of who is signalling whom and in what quantity—can often produce valuable information, even when the messages themselves cannot be decrypted.
The Lockheed MQM-105 Aquila (Eagle) was the first small battlefield drone developed in the United States during the 1970s to act as a target designator for the US Army.
The Elbit Systems Hermes 900 Kochav (Star) is an Israeli medium-size, multi-payload, medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed for tactical missions. It is a sequel to the Hermes 450 series of drones, one of the most widely used military drones in the world.
Exelis Inc., was a global aerospace, defense, information and services company created in October 2011 as a result of the spinoff of ITT Corporation's defense business into an independent, publicly traded company. The company was headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia, USA and was led by CEO and President David F. Melcher. The Washington Post highlighted Exelis as a top company in the Washington, D.C. region in 2011. It was acquired by the Harris Corporation for $4.75 billion in 2015.
INDELA-I.N.SKY is a rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicle, medium-range with the weight up to 140 kg. It is developed and produced by KB INDELA Ltd. Serial production has been set up since 2014.
The Raytheon Coyote is a small, expendable, unmanned aircraft system built by the Raytheon Company, with the capability of operating in autonomous swarms. It is launched from a sonobuoy canister with the wings deploying in early flight phase.
The Cloud Shadow, is an unmanned aerial vehicle of the High-Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) type, featuring an stealthy air-frame. As of 2017 it is being developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group for reconnaissance and precision strike mission.
