ASTAMIDS Proves It Can Detect IEDs From The Air In Near-Real Time: "Airborne Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Minefield Detection System (ASTAMIDS) demonstrated it can detect simulated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in a recently completed U.S. Army evaluation of the end to end system. The system was flown on the Northrop Grumman-owned MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned air system.
ASTAMIDS' laser also demonstrated its capability as a target designator for Hellfire missiles: in three missile firings, all missiles made direct hits on their targets.
In addition to detecting simulated IEDS, ASTAMIDS streaming telemetry data was collected, analyzed and processed on the ground using the new ASTAMIDS Ground Exploitation Station (AGES) processing equipment and software. AGES operators were able to identify target locations in near real-time.
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