New Leica TAMS Development

Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging (GA, USA) has development a new Tactical Airborne Mapping Surveillance (TAMS) system. TAMS is platform agnostic, with a multi-sensor payload capable of in-theater fixed wing, helicopter and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAV/UAS) deployment.

Leica Geosystems recently began testing the tactical mapping system, responding to interest in end-to-end sensor software capabilities within the DoD, and specifically by military services responsible for in-theater data collection. This system includes various swappable sensors and software components, designed to produce National Imagery Transmission Format (NITF) compliant imagery supporting forward area mapping requirements. Also in this system, a swappable multi-sensor configuration supports a wide range in CONOPS.

Logging thousands of hours of design, integration flight and product testing, the team completed its extensive testing of the TAMS-Heavy system (300 lbs payload) during NGA's Empire Challenge 2007 (EC07). During the July 2007 exercises, the team successfully produced numerous NITF compliant image products within hours of the actual mission, from more than a terabyte of raw data. The final UAV (20 lbs payload) testing begins in November 2007 and concludes in January 2008.