Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Singapore Technologies Reveals Infantry Reconnaissance Camera

02/19/07

IDEX UAE

DEFENSE NEWS

Singapore Technologies Reveals Infantry Reconnaissance Camera

By WENDELL MINNICK, ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates

Singapore Technologies Kinetics is showcasing a new infantry reconnaissance camera system that can be fired from 40 mm low-velocity grenade launchers.

“The Soldier Parachute Aerial Reconnaissance Camera System (SPARCS) improves situational awareness for infantry soldiers in the field without calling in UAVs or other aerial reconnaissance platforms,” said Brig. Gen. (ret.) Patrick Choy, chief marketing officer for Kinetics Marketing Group. “It allows for a ‘fire, collect and forget’ capability that gives the infantry its own reconnaissance capability.”

The soldier can load the 40 mm SPARCS camera into a variety of low-velocity grenade launchers and fire it over an obstacle. A small parachute slows its descent.

“It captures strategic aerial images during descent and transmits images to a receiver, a PDA or laptop on the ground,” said Choy. “You can relay the photo back to his commander.”

The 200-gram round has a maximum altitude of 150 meters. Its Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) camera has a 54-degree visual angle from a top-down aerial view. It transmits the picture on a frequency of 2.4 GHz.