Teledyne FLIR's Thermal Imaging Boosts Army sUAS

Teledyne FLIR, part of Teledyne Technologies Incorporated announced it has been selected by Red Cat Holdings, Inc., to provide thermal imaging and Artificial Intelligence (AI) embedded software for its Black Widow™ small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS).

SRR Program

Red Cat was selected as the winner of the U.S. Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) Program of Record after an evaluation process completed by the Army Project Management Office for Uncrewed Aircraft Systems, Army Maneuver Battle Lab, Army Test and Evaluation Command, and Army Operational Test Center.

The U.S. Army’s current acquisition objective is for 5,880 systems, with each system consisting of two aircraft.

Hadron™ 640R+ visible camera module

Black Widow’s fully modular architecture enables swift adaptation to diverse mission requirements

Red Cat incorporated Teledyne FLIR’s NDAA-compliant Hadron™ 640R+ longwave infrared and mega-pixel visible camera module and its Prism™ AI embedded perception software into Black Widow, a highly capable, rucksack-portable sUAS designed for operation in Electronic Warfare (EW) environments.

Black Widow’s fully modular architecture enables swift adaptation to diverse mission requirements, including SSR and secondary payload operation.

Dual thermal-visible imaging

“We are proud to be selected by Red Cat to support the Black Widow with unparalleled tactical capabilities for the U.S. Army’s SSR Program,” said Paul Clayton, Vice President, Teledyne FLIR.

“This collaboration provides the Black Widow with superior yet compact dual thermal-visible imaging along with AI software libraries that enable classification, object detection, and object tracking to complete the mission day or night.”

Thermal imaging technology

“The Hadron 640R+, with its best-in-class thermal vision, will play a key role in helping the warfighter Dominate the Night™ with the Black Widow,” said George Matus, CTO of Red Cat.

“We are thrilled to continue our longstanding relationship with the world pioneer in thermal imaging technology, enabling Red Cat to accelerate deployment to the U.S. DoD and its allies across the globe.”

640x512-resolution thermal camera

The International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)-free Hadron 640R+ provides a 640x512-resolution thermal camera with industry-pioneering thermal sensitivity and a 64-MP resolution visible camera in a size, weight, and power (SWaP) optimized package.

Paired with Prism AI embedded software, the combination can enable high-precision object detection within application-specific classes, multiple object tracking, motion target indication, and more. Military+Aerospace Electronics magazine recently recognized Teledyne FLIR’s Prism digital ecosystem as a Platinum Honoree, its highest award for innovation in defense and aerospace.