BAE Systems To Deliver Secure Digital Military Intelligence From 2024

BAE Systems announced on 7th September 2022 that it would be providing secure digital military intelligence from 2024. 

The company is launching its first multi-sensor, Low Earth orbit satellite cluster. This will deliver premium intelligence and information to military customers in real time from space.

Introducing Azalea: The next step in space intelligence

The collection of satellites has been called ‘Azalea.’ They will utilize a number of sensors to gather radar, visual, and radio frequency (RF) data, which is going to be assessed by onboard machine learning on edge processors. This will deliver intelligence securely to the military, from orbit to any corner of the world. 

Azalea will play a critical role in boosting our country’s ability to understand hazards and threats, in, through, and from space. 

The program supports the Defence Space Strategy that was published by the UK Government earlier in the year. The publication named Earth observation as a chief area in terms of defending and protecting UK interests. This is a sovereign capability that Azalea can cater to. 

The rise of BAE Systems

BAE Systems has gone from strength to strength since it acquired In-Space Missions. It is one of a very small number of businesses in Britain that are capable of designing, building, launching, and operating satellites.

There is no denying that In-Space Missions’ added expertise complements the business’s current advanced technologies. It is becoming integral in terms of its multi-domain capability.

BAE Systems is working alongside ICEYE

To deliver this project, ICEYE, a Finnish firm, is collaborating with BAE Systems. ICEYE’s advanced SAR technology will be incorporated into the cluster. SAR offers high-resolution imagery of the surface of the Earth, day or night, no matter the weather conditions.

Continual monitoring like this makes detecting instant changes much easier, for example, the location of people at risk during a natural disaster or the movement of hostile ships.