Gunner Jordan Barratt prepares mini-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle 'KAHU' (Maori for "Hawk") prior to launch at Waiouru Army Training Area during field tests. OH 08-0393-37
Friday 20 June
The New Zealand Army took a big step towards becoming a network enabled force in the Waiouru training area this week.
The combined endeavours of two Army battle laboratory teams, over seventy troops and industry team members resulted in the first experimental fusion of field deployable sensor data in NZ Army history.
The focus of the exercise has been to provide commanders with correct and timely information using communication and technology solutions, allowing the modern soldier to make accurate decisions on the battlefield.
The activity, known as AEON (Army Exercise on Nemesis), finished today and was the result of three months of ground breaking engineering and research involving soldiers from throughout the Army, and industry expertise from New Zealand, Europe, North America and Australia.
Leading the activity, Major Alex Bromham said the experiment had a number of purposes.
“We want to find out how much more effective our Army can become by fusing information from different types of sensors in order to support the intelligence process.
“Providing our intelligence analysts with this information allows them to give our commanders and staff with a better understanding of enemy movements and intentions. This additional information will significantly improve their situational awareness, allowing them to make better informed decisions more quickly,” Maj Bromham said.
New Zealand’s home grown Kahu, a mini-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has been the key component in the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance Battlelab for some time, but had its first successful night flight during AEON.
Captain Rowland Harrison, UAV Troop Commander said: “We have achieved a number of milestones during AEON, including night-time flying, extended range missions, first time use of infra-red cameras, exploitation and real-time dissemination of imagery products and target information.”
Maj Bromham said AEON provided an insight into the benefits of sensor integration as a key part of network enabling our Army, but this experiment has shown that this capability is not available “out-of-the-box”.
“Integrating different sensors into a capable but evolving communications, command and control system is a technically demanding task, but is within reach of our Army,” Maj Bromham said.
ENDS
For more information and further imagery please contact Bas Bolyn, Defence Public Relations on (04) 496 0285 or 021 478 574.
www.army.mil.nz
Background - AEON (Army Exercise on Nemesis): Exercise Nemesis is an annual Officer Cadet exercise that this year saw an experimental intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) exercise run alongside using subjects from Exercise Nemesis as targets to identify and track using different sensor equipment and technology. A key component of the AEON was mini-UAV KAHU, part of the NZ Army's ISR battlelab.