Israel’s Advanced Payloads

Israel’s Advanced Payloads

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POP 300LR
POP 300LR

TAMAM payload in the hellicopter of a Georgia sheriff * IAI’s TAMAM division celebrates its 50th birthday

You’ll find them attached to the underside of every unmanned aerial vehicle and ISR aircraft, mounted on top of patrol ship masts – or ground masts, inside ground vehicles, manned or unmanned.

The payloads, those metallic spheres with the eye-like openings (for lenses and lasers) hide most of the advanced secrets in the field – electronics and optronics. Cameras, sensors, lasers, gimbals, gyroscopes, a combination that allows aircraft, ships or vehicles to navigate, monitor remote areas, photograph, store information, assist with precision aiming and even launch smart munitions.

An example of a very basic HLS system: A fense surrounding a critical facility, designed to prevent unauthorized intrusions. The fence includes a combined radar-payload system. The radar detects intrusions, the payload’s optronics identify the problem and focus on the target, day or night. The radar was manufactured by Elta while the payload was manufactured by TAMAM – both IAI divisions.

MOSP31
MOSP31

TAMAM will celebrate its 50th birthday this May. It employs 500 workers in Yehud, with an estimated $200 million annual sales revenue. 80% of sales are exported to the United States, Europe, Latin America and the Far East, with the remaining 20% sold to the IDF. TAMAM considers itself the inertial navigation house of Israel’s Ministry of Defense, with Israel being one out of six countries (including Russia, the U.S. and Europe) able to develop and produce advanced stabilized payloads for military and civilian applications.

A birthday is a good opportunity to visit an industry offering state of the art technologies and products, exporting thousands of payloads to clients all over the world. Many years ago TAMAM provided a light surveillance system for the helicopter of Fayette County Sheriff, in Georgia. The coast guard of one European country operates a TAMAM payload (POP Long Range) and an ELTA radar for HLS coastal missions – defending coasts against illegal immigrants, smugglers and illegal fishing. Not to mention all of the IDF’s IAI UAVs carrying TAMAM payloads.

The beginning, back in the 1960s, was a modest one: Fixing analog devices, gauges and electro-mechanical indicators common aboard that era’s aircraft. The second stage in TAMAM’s development was entering the field of inertial navigation. Igal Mevorach, head of marketing for TAMAM: “Inertial navigation is based on the laws of physics. Every moving object has acceleration and speed. On that basis acceleration meters, gimbals and gyroscopes were devleoped to stabilize the system – they all allow aircraft and missiles to navigate and reach their targets with high speed and precision. We differentiate between several generations of navigation equipment, each with its own applications: laser-based stabilization systems, optic fiber, solicone or based on vibration measurements.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

AUS&R-2014  650x80

We toured one of the payload manufacturing areas, where hundreds of men and women assemble the devices along several production line stations. The payloads are assembled y hand, a process requiring high levels of concentration and precision. All the payload component, including the spherical outer shell, are made in Israel. In the corner visitors and employees can see many letters sent by local and global military personnel, thanking TAMAM for its highly efficiant payloads. They include a large photograph of an Israeli Navy ship with its payload. In the beginning payloads included relatively simple cameras, while modern devices include varied components: Day/night stabilized cameras, laser pointers, laser range-finders, gymbals, in addition to software for signal and image processing.

mini-POP
mini-POP

Igal Mevorach: “It’s a comprehensive surveillance system capable of providing a complete intelligence picture. The system paints a laser spot across the target, the precision warhead of a missile or smart bomb see it and home in on it. TAMAM is one of the world’s first industries manufacturing a payload with day/night capabilities in addition to laser pointers.”

TAMAM also develops other technologies: “Tracking, signal processing, image processing, area tracking and more. These technologies allow for constant tracking of multiple targets simultaneously, without interference from other objects moving across the covered area. The most advanced technology is known as persistant surveillance – continuous tracking across an entire area, using many sensors and cameras. This tech can provide constant coverage of an entire area, providing oblique images and avoiding the need to send soldiers into enemy territory.”

The division manufactures dozens of payload models of all sizes, divided into several main families:

  • Micro and mini POP, Plugin Electronic Payload, weighing less than 10 kilograms. The micro-POP is ideal for security fences, working side by side with a radar system
  • POP – weighs 16 kilograms, for helicopters and the Georgia Sheriff
  • MOSP – Multi-Mission Electronic Stabilized Payload – weighs 32 kilograms. Found in most mid- and large sized UAVs, patrol aircraft and coastal defense ships
  • LOROS – a long range payload for surveillance missions, with a range of dozens of kilometers