ISR & Airborne Intelligence
Persistent, wide-area airborne intelligence, from tasking through dissemination, managed as a complete program.
Platform 04 · Supporting system
Sensors & Payloads.
Alpha Federal configures day/night EO/IR sensor systems, wide-area and zoom optics and specialized payloads to the collection requirement rather than to a preferred vendor. The sensor is chosen after the collection requirement is written down.
As Alpha Federal configures it
Published airframe figures are not the same claim as what this aircraft does with a sensor turret, an operator station and a downlink aboard. These are the numbers that describe the mission configuration.
- EO/IR classes supported
- From compact gyro-stabilized turrets suitable for a single-engine type up to multi-sensor turrets with laser designation. Class is driven by the detection range the mission needs, then checked against what the airframe can carry and power.
- Wide-area options
- Wide-area motion imagery and multi-camera array payloads where the requirement is area coverage rather than a single track. These demand materially more downlink bandwidth and more analysts, and both are part of the recommendation.
- Specialized payloads
- Signals collection, maritime search radar, synthetic-aperture radar, LiDAR and multispectral, subject to export licensing and to the customer’s authority to operate them.
- Downlink bandwidth
- Sized to the payload rather than to a catalog figure. A single EO/IR feed and a wide-area array are different problems, and the ground segment is designed against whichever is chosen.
- Integration lead time
- Driven by certification basis and export licensing rather than by installation. A turret already certified on the type is a different program from a first-of-type fit, and we will tell you which one you are looking at before you budget it.
The sensor follows the requirement.
A sensor that outruns the downlink, the analytical staffing or the export licensing pathway does not produce intelligence — it produces a procurement problem. Payload selection is made against the whole architecture: what has to be seen, at what revisit rate, moved over what link, exploited by whom, under which authorities.
Infrastructure required
- Aircraft integration requirement
- Structural provision, electrical power and cooling, cabling routes, and an airworthiness approval path. The approval path is usually the long pole, not the hardware.
- Export licensing pathway
- ITAR or EAR depending on the item and the destination. Determined before a payload is proposed, because a license that will not be granted turns a program into a delay.
Serves these capabilities
C2 & Intel Fusion
Collection generates value only when it reaches the people who can act on it, in the right format, at the right time, through systems they understand.
Sovereign Capability Development
Genuine capability development means your people continue to own and operate every aspect of the mission solution after we leave.
Common Questions
What EO/IR classes do you integrate?
From compact gyro-stabilized turrets suitable for a single-engine type, through mid-class multi-sensor turrets, up to large turrets with laser designation where the airframe can carry them. Class is selected from the detection range the mission actually requires, then checked against what the airframe can carry, power and cool — in that order.
Do we need a wide-area sensor, or is a zoom turret enough?
It depends on whether you are trying to find activity or to examine it. Wide-area collection supports search and pattern-of-life across a large box; a zoom turret answers questions about a location you have already identified. Buying the wrong one is common, and the usual error is buying resolution when the limiting factor was revisit rate.
What downlink bandwidth does a given sensor actually require?
It varies by more than an order of magnitude across the classes we integrate, which is exactly why the question matters. A single compressed EO/IR feed with metadata is modest; a wide-area motion imagery payload streaming usable resolution is a different problem entirely and frequently drives a satellite communications cost nobody budgeted. We size the ground segment and the link against the chosen payload rather than to a standard figure.
What are the export licensing implications of sensor choice?
Substantial, and they belong in the schedule from day one. Many sensor systems sit on the United States Munitions List, which means the article, the training on it and the technical data about it are all export-controlled. The most capable payload is the wrong choice if its licensing pathway outlasts your program's political window.
How long does sensor integration take?
The dominant factors are the airworthiness approval path and export licensing, not the installation. A turret already certified on the type is a comparatively short program. A first-of-type installation requires engineering substantiation and a certification basis, and that is measured in many months. We will tell you which of the two you are looking at before you build a schedule around it.
Can sensors be moved between airframes later?
Sometimes, and it is worth designing for at the outset. A roll-on roll-off or pod-mounted fit is far more portable than a permanently integrated belly installation, at some cost in aerodynamic and sensor performance. If you anticipate changing airframes within the sensor's life, say so early — it changes the mount, the certification approach and the wiring design.