Navy Recognition reports installation of a new type of sensor on four Australian medium range search aircraft. (Looks a lot like an HU-25 doesn’t it? It is a contracted SAR resource.)

This new sensor, Sentient Vision’s Kestrel Maritime ViDAR (Visual Detection and Ranging), is apparently a computer aided visual recognition system intended to detect objects as small as people in the water. A claimed advantage over human lookouts is that system performance does not degrade due to fatigue like human observers.

Apparently this technology is being tested on Scan Eagle and Firescout Unmanned Air Systems too. It is claimed that the system improves the search function on these UAS as much at 80 times that of unaided Electro-Optic systems.

It was reportedly tested by the USCG  “in 2014 and managed to detect small targets at a distance of more than 20nm.” I tried to find out a little bit more about the Coast Guard test, and apparently it was associated with the experiments with an aerostat deployed from the Healey.

Anyone know if this system has a future in the USCG?