Boeing Multi-Intelligence Tactical Aircraft Surpasses 1,000 Flight Hours

Photo : Boeing

Boeing's Reconfigurable Airborne Multi-Intelligence System (RAMIS) aircraft has flown for more than 1,000 hours, demonstrating the reliability of the platform and systems that can be adapted for many missions.Boeing has also demonstrated the system's intelligence-collection during several U.S. government exercises. RAMIS is a Boeing-owned and operated King Air 350 extended range aircraft modified for plug-and-play reconfiguration. The aircraft's sensor suite can be tailored between sorties, enabling low-cost insertion of new technology as capabilities are developed or acquired.

"What makes our airborne multi-intelligence offering unique is our ability to easily change out cameras, sensors and radars to meet customers' needs without intensive modifications to the aircraft," said John Rader, Boeing vice president of Electronic and Sensor Solutions.  "That modularity has enabled us to rack up many demonstration hours with this aircraft. We can spend more of our time testing our systems in flight rather than in the hangar making modifications."The aircraft, which has Federal Aviation Administration Supplemental Type Certification, is Boeing's latest entrant in a family of airborne tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems that includes the P-8 Poseidon and the Maritime Surveillance Aircraft.

A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is one of the world's largest defense, space and security businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world's largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is a $33 billion business with 56,000 employees worldwide.


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Boeing's Ramis Tactical ISR Testbed

credit: Boeing

Boeing has been pushing hard to come on strong into the tactical ISR market. Despite the sputtering of the Enhanced Medium-Altitude Reconnaissance Surveillance System (Emarss) program for the U.S. Army, it seems the company had secretive customer that helped underpin the business a few years ago. But, what was known as the Yellow Jacket demonstrator for that unnamed customer has been morphed for roughly three years into what we now know as Ramis, the Reconfigurable Airborne Multi-Intelligence System.

he KingAir 350 ER based system is an improvement over other such platforms hastily fielded during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars because they allow for rapid swapping out of sensors and are based on open-source, Windows 7-based software, says Mike Ferguson, Boeing's Ramis business development official.

Systems such as the L-3 Communications MC-12W Project Liberty, built for the U.S. Air Force, and Yellow Jacket were specific designs developed for a specific mission set, says Ashan Iqbar, Boeing's Ramis program manager. In the case of the MC-12W, the signals intelligence (sigint) and imagery collectors "do not talk to each other," meaning operators must fuse the data manually. Ramis, however, is developed specifically to allow for automated cueing of imagery sensors once an operator selects a sigint or comint return of interest. The goal is to decrease the time to identify and validate a target, whether it is a search-and-rescue or combat mission.

The company has already demonstrated its Reconfigurable Airborne Multi-Intelligence System for a variety of customers, including Army acquisition secretary Heidi Shyu and foreign customers.
Boeing officials also showcased RAMIS for media during a demonstration flight at Summit Aviation's facility in Middleton, Del., April 23. The market for such an aircraft – a Kingair 350 ER modified to carry multiple intelligence (multi-int) sensors – is at least 90 aircraft, says Mike Ferguson, Boeing’s business development lead for the program. The company plans to take its single Ramis demonstrator aircraft to the Canada Security conference in May but is unlikely to take it across the Atlantic Ocean for the Royal International Air Tattoo or Farnborough in the United Kingdom in July.

For the press demonstration, Boeing had outfitted the system with its own Argon ST Wasp signals intelligence/communications intelligence system, a Wescam MX-15 electro-optical/infrared sensor ball and a CRI LodeStar wide-area-motion-imagery sensor (capable of collecting high-resolution images in rapid succession of a 10km X 10km swath of land). The sensors used for this demonstration were available for export; aircraft, operating systems and gimbals were all designed for rapid swapping of sensors, says Waldo Carmona, Boeing’s director of networked tactical ISR.The aircraft and its available mods have also been certified by the FAA, Ferguson says.

The MX-15 was mounted on an elevator system into an extended nose on the platform. The WAMI camera was mounted in the gimbaled turret under the cockpit and Argon ST’s Wasp Comint sensor was fixed into the aft bay. There is also an “active sensor bay” under the midsection of the fuselage that is suitable for carrying a radar, hyperspectral or foliage penetration sensors. It was not used for this demonstration.


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