Trial of a vehicle mounted UK electro-optic countermine sensor system as part of a UK/US collaborative program

A collaborative program has been undertaken by the UK and US Governments to develop Countermine Capabilities for Medium/Future Forces. The program is conducting research into a ground-based system for the detection and countering of land mines on military routes. The overall objective of the program is to jointly develop and then evaluate a demonstration system prototype. This project was established as a three stage program. The first stage established a common UK/US military requirement and conducted operational analysis based on generic sensors. Once the requirement and analysis were established, candidate technologies appropriate to the timeframe of the program were assessed according to their Technology Readiness Level (TRL). The program is currently in the second stage which is taking technologies identified from the first stage and performing trials in both the UK and US aimed at a more detailed understanding of their baseline performance. A trial in the UK was completed in 2005 where two US vehicle mounted sensor systems and one UK vehicle mounted sensor system were trialled. The UK sensor system is described herein and consisted of three Electro- Optic (EO) sensors that covered the visible, medium wave infra-red (IR) and long wave IR bands. The set-up of the UK trial site and the assembly of the UK EO sensor system are discussed. Analysis of the trial data and preliminary research on the feasibility of fusing data from the EO sensors are discussed.