CorvusEye 1500: Eagle Eye in a Wide Range

Defence Turkey: Mr. Schmackpfeffer, firstly thank you very much for your time. Could you please enlighten us about your position in Harris?

I’m a senior program manager within Harris’ Space and Intelligence Systems business segment.

Defence Turkey: Exelis was recently acquired by Harris Corp. What will be the advantages of being a part of a big company, Harris Corp., in short and long terms?

The combined company is larger and has a more balanced business portfolio of complementary technologies and offerings for global government and commercial customers. This combination significantly enhances our position as a leading provider of mission-critical solutions while expanding our channels and product offerings to a global customer base. It also generates significant synergies that accelerate our ability to deliver new, high-value products, systems and services while driving down our customers’ costs. Combining the companies’ highly complementary core franchises creates a competitively stronger company with much greater scale, government market presence and international channels. This accelerates our strategy to deliver innovative solutions across a broad range of markets and customers, and provides a platform for long-term growth.

Defence Turkey: What are Harris’ core capabilities, technologies, and products?

Harris Corporation is a top 10 defense contractor providing mission critical solutions through its Communication Systems, Critical Networks, Electronic Systems, and Space and Intelligence segments.

Our core capabilities and products include: communications systems such as tactical and airborne radios, night vision technology, and defense and public safety networks; critical networks, including managed services supporting air traffic management, energy and maritime com¬munications, and ground network opera¬tion and sustainment, as well as high-value IT and engineering services; electronic systems, with an extensive portfolio of solutions in electronic warfare, avionics, wireless technology, C4I, undersea systems, and aero structures; space and intelligence solutions, including complete earth observation, weather, geospatial, space protection and intelligence solutions from advanced sensors and payloads, as well as ground processing and information analytics.

Defence Turkey: Could you please inform us about your cooperation in Turkey over the years? 

Not beyond what we already have discussed here. 

Defence Turkey: Harris is going to provide electronic warfare equipment, spares and support services to the Turkish Air Force. Can you share with us about the delivery schedule within the scope of this programme?

Harris is providing electronic warfare technology (along with spares and support services) for Turkey’s F-16s. The systems are the podded variant of the Advanced, Integrated Defensive Electronic Warfare Suite (AIDEWS), also known as the ALQ-211(V)9. The Harris AIDEWS pod is the only production EW pod certified for unrestricted flight on the F-16.

The pods go beyond the critical role of identifying and responding to radio frequency (RF) threats. They, like the whole ALQ-211 family of systems, provide aircrews multi-spectral (RF, IR and laser) situation awareness. Its highly accurate threat warning, sensor fusion, and countermeasures capabilities ensure that aircrews can outpace evolving threats and focus on their mission.

Deliveries of these systems to Turkey are expected to begin in mid-2016, with production taking place at the Harris Electronic Systems facility in Clifton, New Jersey. Harris has also supplied the Turkish Air Force with the internally mounted version of AIDEWS, the ALQ-211(V)4, under a separate contract received in 2009. Though the two variants offer similar capabilities and interchangeable components, the pod offers greater flexibility, as it can be installed or removed based on mission requirements.

Defence Turkey: Harris also developed a persistent surveillance system called ‘CorvusEye’. Could you please enlighten us about this technology?

CorvusEye 1500 is a low-cost, wide area airborne sensor system that enables real-time, persistent surveillance night and day, tracking movement that may be connected to potentially hazardous or criminal activity. This system can support critical information gathering for commerce, law-enforcement, high-profile events e.g. at large sports venues, fires and natural disasters, and more. 

CorvusEye augments traditional video surveillance systems and captures high-resolution, visible color and IR motion imagery over an area 200 times greater than other systems – over 7 sq. km. Plus, CorvusEye can generate up to 10 high-resolution views of different areas of interest simultaneously. 

In addition to the U.S., CorvusEye can be sold in many countries including Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom. For four months beginning in June 2015, CorvusEye capabilities are being demonstrated at airports in several European countries for key government and civil audiences. A demonstration for several dozen people took place at an airfield near Cologne, Germany in July.

Defence Turkey: Do you have any cooperation with Turkish Companies and Turkish Defence Officers related with ‘CorvusEye’? 

We currently are competing for an opportunity in which a Turkish aerospace company would use CorvusEye to support the Turkish government. I can’t share anything else about that at this time.

Defence Turkey: Thank you very much for the interview. 

Thank you for your interest in our Harris programs!