Article Posted on : - Sep 08, 2010

Distant rocket launch as seen by Northrop Grumman's AAQ-37 Distributed Aperture System

BALTIMORE (BNS): The AN/AAQ-37 DAS for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter has successfully detected and tracked a two-stage rocket launch at a distance exceeding 800 miles during a routine flight test.

DAS detected and tracked the rocket during a nine minute, two-stage, flight period from horizon break until final burnout through multiple sensor fields of regard, Northrop Grumman said in a statement.

The AN/AAQ-37 Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System (DAS) is a high resolution omni-directional infrared sensor system that provides advanced spherical situational awareness capability, including missile and aircraft detection, track and warning capabilities for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

"The DAS could fill critical capability gaps in the area of ballistic missile defense (BMD)," said Dave Bouchard, program director for F-35 sensor.

“With DAS, we've combined instantaneous 360-degree spherical coverage, high frame refresh rates, high resolution, high sensitivity powerful processors and advanced algorithms into a single system. The number of possibilities is endless," he said.