AeroVironment Mantis Zooms in on ISR Boost
Photo: Aeroviroment
This week, AeroVironment announced that has made an upgrade to its Mantis line of electro-optical/infrared gimbals with the Mantis i45.
The new payload integrates five subsystems with EO/IR cameras operating at 15 megapixels so that when integrated onto the company’s Puma AE platform, it offers pixels on target that customers usually can only obtain with much larger platforms, says Dave Sharpin, vice president of business development for unmanned aircraft systems at AeroVironment.
“This is what I would consider a pretty big leap,” he says, adding the i45 offers three to five times an improvement over the previous Mantis payload.
Included in the sensor suite are two electro-optical cameras (one wide view and one narrow), a 1.2-megapixel low-light camera, a thermal infrared imager and a laser illuminator.
“The bottom line overall is we want to be able to put more pixels on a target at an undetectable range,” says Sharpin.
He says if a person is flying a Puma AE at an undetectable range, the payload can allow that person to clearly read a license plate, be able to tell what they’re holding in their hand or give an accurate idea of that person’s facial features.
AeroVironment is talking to customers for the system, which can be ordered in September, and the company is hosting a live demo of the payload at Booth #1525.
