SELEX Galileo, a Finmeccanica company, recently completed the first tranche of US flight trials of its VigilX Airborne Enhanced Situational Awareness System.

The system, which enables pilots to see in zero light conditions, was flown in a series of sorties on a US DoD trials helicopter and demonstrated its potential to provide an innovative capability to aid the operation of battlefield helicopters at night and in degraded visual environments.

“Achieving this milestone allows us to position VigilX in the US marketplace, confirming the airborne performance of the system in battlefield helicopters, and its potential value to the US warfighter, which is always our goal,” said William “Mac” Wilkinson, SELEX Galileo Inc. Director Special Operations Business Development.

VigilX is a distributed aperture sensor system which processes inputs from a series of sensors distributed around an airborne platform to generate one integrated panoramic image, which allows the crew to ‘see through the hull’ of the aircraft.  VigilX utilizes a combination of infrared (IR), low light (LL) and visible band (TV) cameras to allow optimum performance under all flying conditions. The system supports simultaneous and independent interrogation of the outside environment by multiple crew members. The ultra-low latency of VigilX (<17milliseconds) allows it to operate with modern helmet-mounted display (HMD) systems, in addition to head-up displays (HUD) and cockpit multi-functional displays (MFDs).

The VigilX system will be demonstrated in a simulated live flight mode on the Finmeccanica stand, (booth number 6015) during the Association of the United States Army annual convention, October 10^th-13^th.