By Greg Giaquinto, Electronics Analyst, Forecast International.
Access to real-time video is a crucial aspect of reconnaissance operations, providing key battlefield intelligence by identifying adversaries and their assets. As such, sales opportunities abound for Lockheed Martin’s VUIT-2 (Video from Unmanned aircraft for Interoperability Teaming-Level 2) system, which has been available since 2009. This kit-based system enables Apache helicopter aircrews to view streaming video and metadata from unmanned aerial systems (UAS). The system also gives Apaches the ability to receive video from aircraft equipped with advanced targeting pods (ATPs).
Current information on the VUIT-2 system is sparse. Most recently, a 2013 article in Rotor & Wing Magazine quoted Lockheed’s VUIT program director as saying that the export version of the VUIT system could be incorporated into the U.K. Ministry of Defence’s Apache Longbow helicopters.
Forecast International projects that Lockheed Martin will sell more than 400 VUIT-2 systems over the next 10 years to defense departments worldwide. Projected sales match the anticipated production of the AH-64 helicopter, plus miscellaneous sales (including spares, etc.), and are being driven primarily by demand from Asia, Japan, and the United States. From 2016 through 2018, FI expects VUIT-2 sales to average 48 systems per year.
FI’s eight Electronic Systems Market Intelligence Services cover the full range of defense-related systems and programs in the radar, communications, electro-optical, and electronic warfare markets, presenting a comprehensive market outlook for current equipment as well as new systems being developed as the modern battlefield moves toward a technology-based warfare approach with network-centric capabilities.
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