Man-portable eyes in the sky to feature at DSEI

The capability for the individual soldier to get the right sensors to the right place at the right time in theatre is now a reality thanks to ISTART, the ‘throw and go’ man-portable UAV designed, developed and built by UK unmanned systems specialists Blue Bear Systems Research (BBSR). The system will be featured at DSEI 2015 on the Ultra Electronics stand number S2-380 and the L-3 stand number S7-310.

With a wingspan of just 75mm, length 66mm and a maximum takeoff weight of 1.5kg, ISTART delivers 40 minutes endurance, covering a 5km radius at speeds of up to 40kph.  ISTART supports a range of sensors, including optical and infrared cameras, while payload installation is a rapid, tool-less operation.

No piloting skills are involved in the deployment of ISTART and there is no human intervention from launch to landing. Mission planning is accomplished by a simple point and click interface which enables the operator to tell the system the required destination. Then it’s just a case of pointing the sensor in the desired direction. A full motion video feed is available immediately after the vehicle boots up.

Customised solutions available include integrated communications and data relay to a base station and ‘hot and high’ climate capability.

Dr Yoge Patel, BBSR’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “It is significant that ISTART will be displayed alongside Ultra Electronics’ “Combat Connect” Generic Soldier Architecture compliant solution. The acquisition and processing of data, together with weight minimisation, are core components of the future soldier system. ISTART is a mobile, highly portable tactical asset that a single soldier can task while on foot to deploy eyes in the sky. Another important application of ISTART is featured on the L-3 stand, where it is being used to demonstrate the utility of L-3 TRL’s Integrated EW (IEW) capability in integrating different sensors and platforms.”