Flight Landata's BuckEye Helps to Locate IEDs in Iraq
5 July 2005
(July 5, 2005 - For Immediate Release) Flight Landata, Inc., a 10 year-old remote sensing firm based in Lawrence, Massachusetts is assisting the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center's (ERDC) Topographic Engineering Center (TEC) with the development of technology that has proven to be of significant value detecting IEDs - Improvised Explosive Devices, and suspected insurgent activities in both urban and rural areas. The BuckEye system has recently been deployed in Iraq where soldiers have been using it to produce outstanding situational awareness under the most difficult conditions.
The BuckEye is the next generation of Flight Landata's patented remote sensing digital camera system technology. It incorporates the latest in digital cameras with GPS, inertial measurement units, CPU and software to produce a lightweight, highly portable camera system. The BuckEye system produces very high-resolution imagery that can be used to rapidly produce digital orthophoto mosaics in the field. The system is platform independent having been used on both fixed wing and rotary aircraft. Due to its ultracompact design and lightweight it is ideally suited for use in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
"This is a very impressive and versatile set of software and hardware that will change the way most soldiers think about imagery," commented SFC Joseph White, Topographic Noncommissioned Officer in Charge. "The fact that the imagery is at an unclassified level will promote its use as much as anything," he said.
"When we first deployed the system to Iraq, we werenÕt sure if it would be tactically relevant to the commanders," explained the ERDC/TEC Director, Mr. Robert Burkhardt, "but we were able to produce actionable intelligence within an hour and a half in lieu of the industry standard of three to four days. Soldiers are delighted by the performance of the BuckEye, and commanders have asked for more," he said.
The imagery produced by the BuckEye is not only useful in detecting IEDs, but also for improving situational awareness. "BuckEye imagery is being incorporated into the Urban Tactical Planner (UTP), also designed by ERDC/TEC, giving Soldiers an even better system to help with battlefield awareness," explained Mr. Eric Zimmerman, Director of Research ERDC/TEC. The UTP is a digital representation of the urban environment. It is a product for mission and tactical planning, and urban fighting.
"We are very proud of the efforts of the entire Flight Landata team, as well as all of the people at TEC that have worked long hours to make the BuckEye system something that we can all be proud of, " commented Don Florence, CEO of Flight Landata. He continued, "It is very rewarding to know that our efforts are helping to save lives and make it safer for soldiers in the war on terror."
