Diamond Aircraft Has Approved The The FlashHawk System For The DA62 SMA

The capabilities of Diamond's Special Mission DA62 continues to expand... This time with the addition of the FlashHawk system -- a passive airborne solution aimed at precisely and instantly geolocating any terrestrial telecommunication emitter (in the 30 MHz - 3 GHz spectrum) to provide a tactical view of the situation to operators.

FlashHawk can be integrated underneath an MPP airframe, providing 360° coverage around the plane in azimuth and elevation up to the horizon, allowing instant 3D geolocation without blind spots.

A significant requirement of geolocation missions is long flight endurance capability -- to generate as much data as possible -- which can lead to highly accurate profiling of the hot spot scenario. The other minimum requirement is the qualification to operate as silently as possible, so as to remain undetected and to be able to generate as much about the behavior of the target as may be possible.

Well-matched in both special mission platforms, the DA42 MPP as well as DA62 MPP demonstrate that at 3,000ft AGL, they operate below a potentially noticeable noise level. An average airborne mission time between six and eight hours is a significant benefit to have for overall mission planning, along with JetA1 fuel usage, IFR single pilot operation and civil aircraft certification.

Diamond’s technical manager, Stefan Haim: “The system showed a very good performance in quickly locating targets, in azimuth and elevation. The detection time was very fast and the shown accuracy was within 13m. Furthermore, it provides a high coverage, so that you do not need to circle extensively in the mission area. Flashhawk will be a great extension to our SIGINT portfolio, SWaP and operational altitude fits perfectly to our DA62 MPP and in combination with a high performance EO/IR gimbal you will able to generate more data in less time. The GUI was easy to handle (English and French version available) and filters (for detecting specific frequencies) can be easily configured on ground before the preflight briefing or if necessary, during flight.”

FMI: www.diamondaircraft.com