Bird Aerosystems enters the Land Solutions market

15 June, 2022

At the Eurosatory exhibition, the company unveiled its new detector for active protection systems and miniature radar for UAVs. "We put a lot of effort in development"

Bird Aerosystems from Hertzeliya, Israel, specialized in airborne defense and vision systems, will announce its entrance into the Land systems market during the Eurosatory exhibition in Paris. The company unveils multi-sensors, light weight detector for active protection systems on armored vehicles, and miniature airborne radar for small aerial unmanned platforms that will be used for border and maritime protection. The expansion into the land systems market is supported by the FIMI fund, the controlling shareholder of the company. In this framework, the Bird Land Systems division was founded, managed by Yoav Kabiri, formerly IAF and MOD person.

Shaul Mazor, VP Marketing at Bird Aerosystems, explains to Techtime that this is a strategic move: “We have invested many resources in developing the new products, where the focus was on miniaturization – one of Bird’s expertises. Now we have another base for our activity. The new solutions brought us to work not only with end-clients, but also with manufacturers such as UAVs and vehicles”. The new solutions are based on existing Bird’s radar, optics and algorithms technologies, originally developed for its combat-proven airborne systems.   

Land versions of aerial protection system

The Hybrid-Eye system is designed as a detection, confirmation and threat tracking in active protection system on armored vehicles and border stations. It provides an answer to a wide range of threats such as anti-tank missiles, RPG’s, drones and artillery shells. The system combines, within a single 4kg unit, three types of sensors: Phased array electrical radar (solid state), multiple IR warning detectors and a Laser warning detector. It is designed to be installed on ground vehicles of all sizes and is fully compatible with interception system (Hard-Kill and Soft-Kill).   

The algorithmics performs fusion between the sensors, which provides it with the ability to fully operate in all terrain and all sight conditions. The Hybrid-Eye and the fusion technology are based on Bird’s flagship product, SPREOS, which provides protection against Directional Infrared Countermeasures missiles (DIRCM). “When we adjusted the SPREOS technology for land, we dramatically minimized both weight and costs. Sensors fusion is being performed at the single-pixel level, and makes it possible to deal with a variety of disturbances that characterizes the land, such as haze, light reflections and heavy vehicles such as tanks that block the sight”. 

New maritime radar

The second solution, µMPR, is miniature maritime patrol radar based on Bird’s proprietary technology and millimeter-wave (mmW) technology to cut through sea clutter. It weighs only 6-7kg, and provides a 40km coverage range. It is designed to be installed on small aerial unmanned platforms, small helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, in order to provide effective protection throughout maritime and land borders. “This nee radar provides greater coverage range, relatively to its size. It provides an answer to a large market share that currently has no solution: lightweight radars with high performance, mainly for unmanned vehicles”. There is already first client, showing interest in Bird’s µMPR radar.

 

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Posted in: Aerospace & Defense , News

Posted in tags: BIRD Aerosystems , Eurosatory