Goodrich wins multi-spectral sensor contract

30 Mar 2011

Imaging company Goodrich and Boeing both receive new optics-related contracts with the US defense establishment.

High-altitude reconnaissance aircraft are to be upgraded with a multi-spectral sensor system developed by Goodrich Corporation.

The US firm has been awarded a contract to deliver two upgraded “Senior Year Electro-Optical Reconnaissance Sensors” (SYERS) to the United States Air Force (USAF) for use on the U-2 aircraft that are used to gather intelligence at heights of up to 70,000 feet.

Goodrich says that the upgrades, known as SYERS-2A, will improve the U-2 sensing performance by adding extra multi-spectral imaging capability to the platform, “providing significantly more utility in discerning imagery”. The sensors will be manufactured at Goodrich’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems division in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

Multi-spectral sensors capture images at specific frequencies across the electromagnetic spectrum, and the images can be used for threat analysis on the ground and on buildings, by detecting and showing changes not readily apparent to the human eye.

"The U-2 sensor upgrade will provide the USAF with further multi-spectral capability, fully supported by Goodrich," said Andrew Chrostowski, Vice President, Goodrich's Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Systems business.

• Meanwhile Boeing is being awarded a $10,596,300 firm-fixed-price delivery order to procure 741 of Honeywell’s model GG1320 ring laser gyros. The gyros will be used mostly in F/A-18E/F and EA-18G aircraft for the US Navy, although 27 units will also be supplied to the Australian government as spares. The Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.