RQ-4A Global Hawk and S/TAR RM-8000 (100 GByte memory)

Camden, NJ (Thursday, August 4, 2000) L-3 Communication Systems - East successfully performed a flight test today of its Airborne Solid State Recorder, the S/TAR (Strategic/Tactical Airborne Recorder) on the RQ-4A Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The S/TAR is a state of the art, high performance solid state recorder, designed for the severe environments of reconnaissance and flight test applications.

This flight test was conducted as a tactical reconnaissance mission, with real time imagery dissemination through an L-3 datalink. This test demonstrated an end-to-end imagery collection and dissemination capability using today's most advanced, high capacity, solid state recorder. This flight test was conducted using DCRSi tape recorder protocol, and validated the S/TAR product as being a viable "plug and play, flight proven" replacement for the Ampex DCRSi tape recorder. This will provide enhanced capabilities and improve operational mission performance on reconnaissance platforms.

The S/TAR system facilitates either physical memory cartridge removal or data transmission via a wideband datalink in near-real time. An operator may also review imagery while simultaneously recording new imagery from multiple sensors. This flight test also demonstrated the ruggedness and reliability of the S/TAR system in the airborne environment, being subjected to a variety of operating temperatures, altitudes, vibration and humidity levels in the high altitude Global Hawk mission. S/TAR is an ideal data storage system for reconnaissance applications and is built on our heritage of providing space solid state recorders, combined with advanced features for the airborne market. These features include: high data rates (800 Mbits/sec), a large storage capacity (100 Gbytes), low power, small volume and light weight. No other solid state supplier offers a STANAG 4575 compliant architecture with Reed-Solomon Error Detection and Correction, combined with the highest density memory available.

Camden, NJ (Thursday, August 16, 2000) L-3 Communication Systems - East successfully performed an integration demonstration today of its Airborne Solid State Recorder, the S/TAR (Strategic/Tactical Airborne Recorder). This test was conducted with a DB-100 LOROP Reconnaissance sensor built by Raytheon HDOS, in Lexington, Mass. The S/TAR is a state of the art, high performance solid-state recorder, designed for the severe environments of reconnaissance and flight test applications.

This demo was verified by imaging specification quality test patterns through the DB-110 sensor, which is designed for the long-range reconnaissance mission, with near-real time imagery dissemination. The sensor and S/TAR solid state recorder were managed by a Raytheon-built Reconnaissance Management System and controlled by a hand-held controller. These targets were imaged, recorded by the S/TAR and subsequently displayed on a reconnaissance exploitation ground system. This test demonstrated an end-to-end imagery collection and dissemination capability using today's most advanced, high capacity, solid state recorder. This demo was conducted using S/TAR as a direct replacement for both a DCRSi 107 airborne and ground tape system. Data and control protocol interfaces for both the airborne and ground playback configurations were unchanged, resulting in a seamless plug and play solid state recorder solution. The S/TAR product remains the premier "plug and play, flight proven" replacement for Ampex DCRSi tape recorders, with demonstrated replacement capability of Ampex DCRSi 240 and 107 airborne and ground versions. Raytheon's DB-110 is the only day/night LOROP system to have demonstrated long range imaging performance from tactical jet aircraft. Additional flight demonstrations of the DB-110 with the S/TAR solid-state recorder are planned for later this year.

The S/TAR system facilitates either physical memory cartridge removal or data transmission via a wideband datalink in near-real time. An operator may also review imagery while simultaneously recording new imagery from multiple sensors. S/TAR is an ideal data storage system for reconnaissance applications and is built on our heritage of providing space solid-state recorders, combined with advanced features for the airborne market. These features include: high data rates (400 Mbits/sec), a large storage capacity (100 Gbytes), low power, small volume and light weight. No other solid state supplier offers intelligent cartridge architecture with Reed-Solomon Error Detection and Correction, combined with the highest density memory available.

RF-35 Draken Fighter and S/TAR RM-8100 (100 GByte memory)

Camden, NJ (Thursday, November 18, 1999) L-3 Communication Systems - East successfully performed a flight certification test today of its Airborne Solid State Recorder, the S/TAR (Strategic/Tactical Airborne Recorder). This test was conducted on a Swedish-built RF-35 Draken, a single-seat, multi-role fighter, currently operated by Flight Research, Inc, at the Mohave, California airport. The S/TAR is a state of the art, high performance solid state recorder, designed for the severe environments of reconnaissance and flight test applications.

This flight test was conducted as a tactical reconnaissance mission, with near-real time imagery dissemination. Several tactical targets were imaged using a CA-260^® Electro-Optical Framing Sensor manufactured by Recon/Optical, Inc (ROI) (Barrington, IL, USA), and displayed after the flight on an ROI reconnaissance exploitation ground system. This test demonstrated an end-to-end imagery collection and dissemination capability using today's most advanced, high capacity, solid state recorder. Installation of this visible reconnaissance system was fit into a 5.6 cu ft avionics bay, of which S/TAR occupied 0.86 cu ft. This flight test was conducted using DCRSi tape recorder protocol, and validated the S/TAR product as being a viable "plug and play, flight proven" replacement for the Ampex DCRSi tape recorder. This will provide enhanced capabilities and improve operational mission performance on reconnaissance platforms.

The S/TAR system facilitates either physical memory cartridge removal or data transmission via a wideband datalink in near-real time. An operator may also review imagery while simultaneously recording new imagery from multiple sensors. This flight test also demonstrated the ruggedness and reliability of the S/TAR system in the airborne environment, being subjected to a variety of operating temperatures, altitudes, vibration and humidity levels in the supersonic Draken fighter. S/TAR is an ideal data storage system for reconnaissance applications and is built on our heritage of providing space solid state recorders, combined with advanced features for the airborne market. These features include: high data rates (400 Mbits/sec), a large storage capacity (100 Gbytes), low power, small volume and light weight. No other solid state supplier offers an intelligent cartridge architecture with Reed-Solomon Error Detection and Correction, combined with the highest density memory available. Additional flight tests will be conducted on military aircraft in the near future.

Inflight S/TAR imagery 5,000 feet, 400 knots

A successful demonstration was conducted with the L-3 Communication Systems - East S/TAR and the Recon-Optical, Inc (ROI) CA-265 Infrared Framing Sensor on August 27, 1999.

The CA-265 is ROI's newest Infrared reconnaissance sensor. A production version of the CA-265 was integrated with the S/TAR Solid State Recorder at ROI's CAI Division in Barrington, IL. Reconnaissance data was recorded by the S/TAR during lab testing. This data was successfully played back on a ground station. This was a logical sequence in the buildup to flight testing, planned for October, 1999.

The combination offers a flexible recording and reproduction system ideal for reconnaissance applications. The S/TAR SSR provides a severe environment recording / reproduction system unmatched by comparable tape or disk based systems.

L-3 Communications Systems-East Camden, New Jersey designed, developed, and produced the S/TAR (Strategic/Tactical Airborne Recorder), Model RM-6000F for the SHARP Program. S/TAR Recorder is a solid state, high speed, large storage capacity system with many advanced features.

A successful demonstration was conducted with the L-3 Communication
Systems - East S/TAR and the L-3 Aydin MiniARMOR-700 on August 10, 1999. The MiniARMOR-700 was configured with a CTL-710 controller card, and the S/TAR SSR was configured with the Ampex emulation software for this demonstration. This demonstration validated the compatibility of these two pieces of hardware. Two primary features of the system were demonstrated: First, RS-422 command and status interface compatibility between the S/TAR and the MiniARMOR-700 firmware/host control software was accomplished along with error-free record and reproduction of four channels of PCM data from an external source.

The combination offers a flexible recording and reproduction system ideal for flight test and instrumentation applications. This L-3 Communications system offers a flexible flight test and instrumentation solution to record/reproduce a variety of sensor inputs (PCM, 1553, IRIG Time, Voice, Analog, etc) multiplexed through the MiniARMOR-700 into the S/TAR solid-state recorder. The S/TAR SSR provides a severe environment recording/reproduce system unmatched by comparable tape or disk based systems.

A functional S/TAR system was successfully demonstrated at the 1999 Paris Air Show. Viewers were able to see imagery simultaneously recorded and played back through the S/TAR including use of special interest marks.