Tel Aviv. Israeli company BIRD Aerosystems is now in the final stages of transforming a Cessna Citation CJ3 aircraft into an ASIO Special Mission Aircraft.
Until now all the company’s projects were performed in BIRD’s MRO facility in Cyprus, but due to COVID-19 flight restrictions, the company decided to bring the aircraft to Israel.
The Special Mission Aircraft will later be delivered to an unnamed African customer. The aircraft will be used to protect the client’s territorial waters, mainly against illegal fishing, oil and gas theft, smuggling and terror actions.
Shaul Mazor, VP Marketing and Business Development of BIRD Aerosystems told Raksha Anirveda that the company is among the very few companies that use aircraft the size of the Citation CJ3 as a platform for a special mission aircraft.
According to Mazor, ASIO is an end-to-end airborne Information, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) solution ideal for maritime and ground surveillance, search and rescue, patrol and monitoring.
He added that ASIO offers decision makers and field commanders accurate, real-time terrestrial and maritime information that dramatically enhances situational awareness. “A true force multiplier, ASIO enables even small crews to deliver detailed and comprehensive surveillance information covering large geographic areas.”
Mazor said that ASIO is rapidly deployed in multiple configurations, nstalled on new or in-fleet aircraft.
“ASIO leverages BIRD’s advanced mission management system (MSIS) to integrate information from a wide range of mission-specific sensors and communications systems.”
The company’s official added that ASIO provides customers with an integrated Aerial-Naval-Land solution. It facilitates maritime and coastal surveillance, patrol and survey of borders and strategic assets as well as Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) monitoring capabilities.
He added that ASIO integrates many platforms and systems carried by Fixed Wing surveillance aircraft tailored with maritime mission sensors, UAV, Naval Ships and HQ command posts.
Information gathered from the various sensors is autonomously prioritized and automatically alerts of suspicious activities.
According to the Israeli company, the ASIO aircraft provides all the participants in the mission to operate with an effective, integrated, real-time situational awareness overview over land and water, enabling efficient detection, tracking and interception of any suspicious activity.
The Special Mission Aircraft will use BIRD’s Ocean surveillance control and reconnaissance solution (OSCAR) system.
OSCAR applies machine-learning algorithms on real-time maritime data sources such as satellite and terrestrial AIS, satellite SAR/EO/IR, LRIT, coastal radars, tactical sensors and more, and uses it to detect, analyze and prioritize suspicious vessels while providing automatic intelligence and threat assessments and alerts of any suspicious or illegal activity detected.
The Israeli company says that OSCAR is an affordable and quick to deploy solution delivering real-time intelligence and threat assessments for the vessels within the country’s areas of interest. The information provided by the OSCAR system enables the customer to focus on specific vessels that were pointed out by the system as acting suspiciously, examine them, and incriminate the ones performing illegal activities.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist
