Elbit unveils COPAS-L for military surveillance and target acquisition...

14 Jun 2022

...while Teledyne Flir Defense also launches Kobra 725 military robot at this week’s Eurosatory defense expo.

Israel-based defense technologies developer Elbit Systems has unveiled the COPAS-L, a new electro-optical payload designed for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) applications. COAPS-L is described as “a miniaturized configuration of the company’s Commander Open Architecture Panoramic Sight (COAPS), which is in service onboard tanks and armored fighting vehicles around the world.”

The new payload is showcased for the first time during this week’s Eurosatory defense expo in Paris, France, as part of the Elbit’s display and integrated onboard an Unmanned Ground Vehicle as part of the Roboteam presentation.

With small dimensions and weighing 40kg, COPAS-L provides light platforms such as light tactical vehicles, UGVs and surface vessels with AFV-level ISTAR capabilities. The COPAS-L payload operates either as an independent ISTAR payload or combined with the platform's weapon station.

Features of COAPS-L include a Medium Wave Infra-Red (MWIR) or a Long Wave Infra-Red channel, thermal channel, High Definition color day camera, eye-safe laser range finder, and an automated target tracker, providing 360-degrees, long-range ISTAR capabilities, day and night, on-the-move or stationary.

In addition, COAPS-L features Artificial Intelligence video analytics enabling Automatic Target Recognition and classification, Video Motion Detection and enhanced image processing. The system’s open architecture supports integration with command and control systems and with other onboard sub-systems.

Teledyne Flir Defense launches Kobra 725 military robot

Teledyne Flir Defense, part of Teledyne Technologies, has also announced at Eurosatory, the launch of its new Kobra 725 modular robot. The tracked multi-mission platform delivers new capabilities and technology upgrades to the Kobra 710 unmanned ground system, with the lift capacity and mobility customers demand for operations in the harshest conditions.

The Kobra 725 robot’s advanced manipulator arm can lift heavy loads and stretches to a height of nearly four meters to access hard-to-reach places. At less than 250 kg, the 725 is highly maneuverable, even in rough terrain. It can climb stairs and surmount “jersey barriers” – the modular concrete or plastic barriers used to separate lanes of traffic. New Kobra vision technologies includes full-HD cameras, wide angle visual/thermal mobility cameras, field-swappable radio modules, and AES-256 encryption.

These features, says Teledyne Flir Defense (TFD), “suit the robot to military applications such as Explosive Ordnance Disposal or counter-vehicle-borne IED missions, remote CBRN detection, weapon integration, and reconnaissance, and other tough jobs from building safety and hazmat inspections to nuclear power maintenance.”

“Our new Kobra 725 delivers a range of upgrades and enhancements that address increasingly complex situations troops are facing on frontlines right now,” said Dr. David Cullin, vice president and general manager of Unmanned & Integrated Solutions at TFD. “This multi-mission robot gives users a powerful, highly mobile system that keeps them out of danger areas as they evaluate and mitigate threats.

The 725’s typical configuration includes a mast-mounted HD PTZ camera as well as several universal payload ports and mounting points to attach and integrate naccessories, such as thermal cameras, mine clearance tools, rangefinders, lidar, X-ray equipment, CBRN sensors, and weapons.

In 2019, the U.S. Army selected the Flir Kobra as its Common Robotic System-Heavy (CRS-H) robotic platform and approved a five-year production contract to build upwards of 350 unmanned ground vehicles. In November 2021, the Army announced it had begun fielding CRS-H robots.