Logos Technologies Redkite Airborne, Wide-Area Sensor Takes Flight in the Netherlands

December 4, 2018

Courtney E. Howard

European government officials gained their first glimpse of Logos Technologies ’ Redkite wide-area motion imagery ( WAMI ) sensor in operation, during a demonstration late last month to defense, security, Law enforcement, and civilian agencies in The Netherlands in partnership with AEC Air Support BV at its Bosschenhoofd airfield.

At the AEC Air Support facility, Redkite was integrated onto a Stemme S-15 powered glider in combination with a Wescam MX-15 full-motion video (FMV) turret camera, and the complete system was demonstrated for several days.

“The opportunity to partner with such a highly respected company as AEC Air Support, and be able to demonstrate the Redkite WAMI system to so many representatives from different government agencies of The Netherlands was tremendous,” says Alan Murdoch , vice president of international programs for Logos Technologies. “Briefing charts can communicate only so much information. For our guests to be able to see how small the Redkite sensor really is, how easy it is to integrate and operate, and how powerful WAMI can be in operation, was invaluable.”

Housed in a platform-agnostic pod, the Redkite lightweight WAMI system has been designed to support a wide variety of defense, border security, public safety, and humanitarian assistance missions. Weighing less than 35 pounds (16 kg) in the pod format, Redkite continuously images a city-sized area, or 12 square kilometers, in medium resolution, all at once. It automatically processes the images into an orthorectified, georegistered, time-referenced series of images (a “video”), which is refreshed twice a second, enabling WAMI operators to detect and track all significant movers in the entire scene.

The Redkite system can record and archive up to eight hours of imagery in the airborne sensor pod, as well as provide multiple WAMI operators on the ground immediate access to all imagery — enabling them to perform real-time forensic analyses that can uncover previously unknown activities, relationships, and/or locations of interest.

Additionally, should an operator need a closer look at a specific location in real-time, Redkite can also semi-automatically task other sensors on the aircraft, such as the FMV turret camera, while continuing to maintain situational awareness of the whole area.

As part of its family of WAMI sensors, Logos Technologies also offers the Redkite-I , which has been specifically designed to integrate into the Insitu Integrator Group 3 UAS and has completed final flight testing with Insitu earlier this year.

Founded in 1996, Logos Technologies LLC is a diversified science, engineering, and technology company specializing in the fields of advanced sensors, wide-area motion imagery, advanced analytics, and processing of large, multisource datasets. Logos serves government customers, including the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community and Department of Homeland Security, as well as a range of customers in commercial and international markets.

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Courtney E. Howard is editorial director and content strategist at SAE International, Aerospace Products Group. Contact her by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..