SCIENCE

Contract includes multiple FELCO  processing solutions developed collaboratively with Mercury Computer Systems

The United States government has awarded ITT Corporation a contract to provide software and hardware solutions tied to the collection, processing and dissemination of full motion video (FMV) and wide area airborne surveillance (WAAS) from unmanned aircraft.

ITT will deliver its solutions, including the FELCO (Federated Embedded inteL-server for Collaborative Operations) processing solution, to the U.S. Army Project Manager-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (PM-UAS) early this fall in support of planned system flight tests and assessments. FELCO was jointly developed with Mercury Computer Systems, a trusted intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) subsystems provider.

ITT is contracted to develop and demonstrate an expanded capability for the U.S. Army’s FUSE (Federated Universal Synchronization Engine) program, increasing the effectiveness of Army unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) serving the warfighter. The FUSE program has made significant progress in transforming single-user, down-linked feeds into federated video sensors between “collaborative” UAS and other intelligence systems. 

“Our deliverables are congruent with the PM-UAS roadmap for FUSE and collectively advance the approach to delivering FMV and WAAS sensor modalities to users,” stated Matthew Pellechia, manager, Geospatial Information Solutions, part of ITT Defense & Information Solutions. “Our joint solution provides PM-UAS with a PED (processing, exploitation, and dissemination) capability, constructed upon an open-architecture to synthesize volumes of multi-INT information into formats that directly respond to warfighter requirements.”   

ITT will update the existing FUSE systems with advanced open-standards FMV software capabilities, deliver multiple FELCO solutions to remove limitations inherent with ground computing shelters, and deliver a WAAS motion imagery client-server simulator.

FELCO is expected to be the fastest means of transforming raw sensor imagery and metadata from airborne surveillance platforms into assured geospatial intelligence in a small, open-standards configuration while a mission is on station.

“FELCO is an extremely high-performance, real-time solution for PED applications on board UAV platforms that can substantially improve the user’s ability to obtain situational awareness in real time,” said Brian E. Perry, vice president and general manager of Services and Systems Integration at Mercury Computer Systems. “Its quick adoption by the U.S. government underscores its importance as a critical tool in supporting mission success.”

Developed and supported on Mercury’s Application-Ready Subsystems (ARS), FELCO leverages the company’s high-performance Powerblock processing architecture and ITT’s open-standards PED software, Enhanced AGILE Access, and AdLib.