AVALON 2023: ARKEUS launches new ISR sensor

Melbourne-based ARKEUS used AVALON 2023 to launch its Hyperspectral Optical Radar (HSOR), a sovereign, Australian-made, maritime Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) sensor system developed for the RAN.

The HSOR is a real time autonomous wide-area hyperspectral sensor that the company says is set to revolutionise situational awareness from drones and manned aircraft.

ARKEUS says the sensor slashes current exploitation time for hyperspectral imagery from days or hours to mere seconds.

“We understand that speed is critical, and no existing system comes close to this level of responsiveness; the HSOR offers significant capability enhancement for security, stability and sovereignty objectives,” says ARKEUS’ CEO Simon Olsen.

Developed under contract for the Australian Department of Defence, with sponsorship from the Australian Navy, the HSOR also offers a new level of precision when it comes to information processing, with operators able to filter and define objectives specific to mission requirements rather than being flooded with excess data to manually manage.

“There is no more searching through surplus information to eliminate threats or discern a contact from an anomaly; the HSOR processes data on the edge to deliver specific contact intelligence at optimum speed to facilitate immediate decision-making,” says Olsen.

HSOR surveillance capabilities are also unprecedented. The technology is optimised for aircraft or drones conducting a wide variety of missions over land, sea or littoral environments including maritime domain awareness, ISR, border protection, city size surveillance and reconnaissance, force protection, counter terrorism, illegal activity monitoring or search and rescue.

The HSOR is small enough to fit within the Size, Weight and Power (SWAP) constraints of a tactical UAS, says Olsen, who anticipates considerable interest within Australia as well as the US, Europe, the middle east, and the Asia Pacific.