Electronic Intelligence from UAV’s Eye
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עברית (Hebrew)
The intelligence community gets another tool that could widen the scope of its resources. ECA Group recently unveiled the IMSI-Catcher signal intelligence module for its IT180 mini-drone. The IMSI-Catcher is a mean of surveillance for counter-terrorism that makes it possible to carry out electronic intelligence missions.
IMSI stands for International Mobile Subscriber Identity – a unique ID number contained in a SIM card used to identify the user of a mobile phone network.
The technology that will be available from the first quarter of 2018 is already used in ground and airborne vehicles during special operations on field, but its integration in a UAV should considerably facilitate and expand its use, as the UAV can overcome obstacles (roads, forests, mountains or desert areas) and to fly lower, getting closer to the targets, according to uasvision.com.
The company says the UAV will enable detection missions to be carried out discreetly in hard-to-access areas with rapid and flexible deployment conditions.
The IT180 platform is capable of integrating different types of IMSI Catchers to perform operations in multiple contexts depending on the mission, country, regulatory and environmental objectives.
The main assets of the IT180 UAV that play a decisive role in an intelligence mission include a 50-minute autonomous flight, 10-km flight range and a high payload capacity.
The technology allows to mount also a high-definition camera on board the IT180 for collecting additional and detailed information, both electronic and visual.
