General Atomics (GA-ASI), manufacturer of the Predator family of UAVs and their associated sensors and ground stations, is offering an off-the-shelf version of UAV sensor suite for manned aircraft.
Dubbed Griffin Eye, the offering would suit aircraft in the King Air 200/350, Beech 1900D, Twin Otter, PC-12 and Cessna Citation classes.
“Griffin Eye represents a total end-to-end airborne ISR solution,” Linden Blue, GA-ASI’s president, Reconnaissance Systems Group said in a statement. “It integrates the airborne payload package with an operator console station that collects, formats, and displays sensor data for optimum exploitation. Imagery and exploitation products can then be sent via an airborne data link to ground stations for further analysis.”
Sensors offered include the company’s Lynx synthetic aperture radar/ground moving target indicator (SAR/GMTI), and electro-optical/infra-red (EO-IR) cameras, as well as datalinks and other communications enhancements.