ViDAR optical radar impresses at Royal Navy¹s Unmanned Warrior

Through the attached Press Release, Sentient is pleased to confirm that its ViDAR (Visual Detection and Ranging) payload has successfully completed its capability demonstration with the UK’s Royal Navy at the recent Unmanned Warrior exercise. The first public demonstration of ViDAR in Europe. In front of senior representatives from the Royal Navy, British government, industry, and representatives of allied militaries from around the world, ViDAR consistently demonstrated its ability to autonomously detect small objects on the surface of the ocean over wide areas of coverage.

Integrated into the ScanEagle UAS from Insitu, ViDAR performed over 55 hours of operations through the exercise, detecting a range of targets including;  

Rubber boats and jet skis out past 5nm, 

Naval vessels at 10nm, 

Freighter beyond 30nm. 

A highlight was ViDAR’s detection of a Fast Attack Craft (FAC) out beyond 13nm – the extent of what was possible given airspace restrictions. 

Detection of the FAC so early allowed the vessel more than 30 minutes advance notice of the inbound potential threat – game changing for the ships Captain.