AML Aircraft Tests Capabilities for Intelligence, Homeland Security, Humanitarian Missions

MELBOURNE, Australia, March 1st, 2011 — Rockwell Collins and DRS Defense Solutions  have been added to the growing list of companies with C4ISR products integrated into Lockheed Martin’s [NYSE: LMT] Airborne Multi-Intelligence Laboratory, or AML. The AML is an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance test bed developed to help customers experiment with and validate how intelligence sensors and systems interact, and how to best apply them in military and non-military markets.

“The AML has an architecture that allows us to easily integrate new capabilities,” said Jim Quinn, Vice President with Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Solutions-Defense. “This gives us the flexibility to exploit multiple intelligence sensor combinations to address the needs of many different customers. One day we can test radar for a military customer; then reconfigure the platform to fly a pipeline survey experiment.”

A modified Gulfstream III business jet, the AML’s open, “plug-and-play” architecture allows various sensors and systems to be rapidly integrated into the aircraft with minimal development time. This enables customers to quickly evaluate new sensors, new combinations of sensors and new tactics for employing sensors to develop capabilities to support a diverse range of contingency operations. The Gulfstream III was chosen as the AML platform due to its high-altitude capability, broad flight regime and long range.

The AML has grown in functionality over the past year with new capabilities being integrated from a variety of companies, including new sensors provided by DRS Defense Solutions and advanced Rockwell Collins avionics integrated into the AML’s mission system. Other companies providing equipment to the AML include FLIR Systems providing High Definition Electro-Optical/Infrared sensors and wideband data links provided by L-3 Communication Systems-West.

In addition to a full suite of intelligence collection systems and a computing capability that supports most commercial operating systems, a “canoe” on the underside of the aircraft can house a wide range of sensors. Four onboard workstations linked to a robust ground system support data processing to support a diverse range of experiments. The AML ground station can be integrated into other intelligence ground stations, communications enterprises, or command and control networks.

Source and photo: Lockheed Martin