BARCO’s Rugged Displays Selected for General Atomics’ UAV Ground Stations
LE BOURGET, PARIS, June 15th, 1997 -- BARCO Display Systems, Chromatics division, has been selected by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., (GA-ASI) San Diego, CA, to supply rugged displays for integration into their Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) Common Ground Control Stations. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems manufactures a wide range of extremely capable and versatile UAV’s that are utilized in a broad range of surveillance and reconnaissance applications.
UAV’s built by GA-ASI include the long endurance (over 40 hours) GNAT-750, the Altus, the PROWLER and the most well-known long endurance (up to 40 hours) PREDATOR. The PREDATOR, which is deployed to Hungary and conducts flight operations over Bosnia, is the only reconnaissance system available in the U.S. that can provide near real-time video and photographs of the war zone via satellite worldwide, day or night, and under any weather condition without exposing pilots to combat fire.BARCO’s RGD 651 19 inch displays are an integral component of the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ common solid state digital ground control station (GCS) that support all of GA-ASI’s UAVs, including the PREDATOR. The RGD monitors are primarily used to display real-time surveillance data from the UAV’s at ranges of up to 150 nautical miles, and can operate autonomously to the range limits of the UAV. The BARCO RGD rugged color monitor is a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) display that meets harsh environmental specifications, such as temperature and vibration, which are typically experienced in mobile ground station applications.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has placed orders for over 70 BARCO RGD displays, many of which have already been delivered and are fully operational in GA-ASI’s UAV Common Ground Control Stations.
About BarcoView:
BarcoView with operation facilities in Kortrijk (Belgium), Toulouse (France), Atlanta, Georgia and Portland, Oregon (USA) designs and manufactures high-resolution display systems, displays, graphics controllers and display subsystems for highly demanding niche markets such as C4I, avionics, vessel and air traffic control, vehicle electronics, and medical imaging applications.
Alongside Barco Projection Systems and BarcoVision, BarcoView is one of the three strategic activities of the BARCO Group, which are all active in Image Processing. Barco Projection is in various markets of large screen visualization, whereas BarcoVision develops systems for visual inspection and quality control. In 2000, the entire BARCO group delivered a turnover of euro 751 million. BARCO has a network of subsidiaries, distributors and agents in 97 countries throughout the world. BARCO has been quoted on the Brussels Stock Exchange since 1986, and is now quoted on Brussels/Euronext. BARCO is a BEL 20 and a Next 150 company and is member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes.
