How longer-range LRFs help ISR UAVs see without being seen

Stealth is the most desirable advantage for tactical security, surveillance, and border monitoring UAV missions. Response and tactical teams operating in the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) role depend on their UAVs to offer several benefits over traditional ISR aerial assets like helicopters or satellites.  

UAVs are several orders of magnitude more cost-effective to operate than helicopters and can fly in conditions and hazardous terrain areas that helicopters aren’t cleared for. UAVs can also operate below cloud cover, which might render an ISR satellite’s perspective ineffective.  

When border law enforcement agencies or security response teams must confirm an intrusion, persons of interest, or gather intelligence, a UAV with longer-range sensing abilities is ideal. But what are the required gimbal sensor payloads and stealth properties that create the ideal UAV for ISR?  

 

ISR assets must own the night 

As the intrusion and security risk increases at night, ISR teams need to operate their UAVs confidently under cover of darkness to identify threats, respond to intrusions or confirm intelligence by reconnaissance.  

An effective 24/7 all-weather capable UAV must feature a gimbal-integrated laser rangefinder (LRF) as part of its EO/IR sensor payload. The LRF provides crucial depth perception and distance sensing capabilities, enhancing operational awareness for border monitoring and security response teams in high-risk situations.  

When a security threat, border intrusion or intelligence confirmation is needed, the UAV’s LRF is an invaluable sensor when operating in adverse weather or nighttime. Depth and distance measurements and data generated by the LRF, combined with the UAV’s GPS, allow response ground teams the tactical advantage of knowing exactly where they can expect an encounter and plan their advance or interdiction, with the complete advantage of surprise, lowering the risk for personnel.  

LRF’s also help to focus the UAV’s optical cameras in complex lighting conditions. When a response team demands clarity from the UAV’s image feed in harshly backlit or low-light conditions, traditional contrast image-focusing technology can struggle. The LRF assists by feeding the camera’s internal focusing system exact distance data to the object or person it needs to focus on, creating image clarity even when there’s little to no contrast guiding the camera’s internal focusing.  

But if the UAV is too noisy or betrays its presence during an ISR mission, the element of stealth is compromised, potentially ruining the probability of mission success and increasing the risk for ground response teams, responding tactically to the data and coordinates provided by the UAV.  

 

Sound and stealth  

When an ISR team is called to respond to a security threat or required to gather intelligence, stealth is the currency it uses to guarantee mission success. Rotor-powered UAVs can generate a high-pitched buzzsaw noise signature, and although blade design can reduce the noise, flying higher helps a lot.  

If a longer-range LRF is part of the UAV’s gimbal sensor payload, an operator can use altitude to reduce the risk of detection by sound signature – without compromising the core LRF depth, distance and detection functions.  

Longer-ranger LRFs allow an ISR UAV to operate at higher altitudes while retaining sensing capabilities and situational awareness of what is happening in the terrain area of interest below. Those higher altitudes lessen the probability of anyone at ground level hearing that a UAV is monitoring them in hover. Sound can easily betray a UAV in the ISR role, but higher flight and hover altitudes can help response teams keep possession of their stealth advantage. 

 

Hidden from night vision 

The need to remain visually undetected is another critical stealth element required by teams operating a UAV for ISR. Darkness might mask a UAV, making it invisible to the human eye, but night vision goggles (NVG) can see the LRF’s laser beam, revealing an ISR UAV’s presence and intention – and defeating its mission.  

For border security teams operating UAVs in dusty desert environments, the risk of NVG detection by LRF’s signature is higher. When the LRF beam interacts with dust particles, it deflects in multiple directions, creating a scatter effect that makes the beam path easily visible to anyone observing with NVG.  

How does a security or border response team effectively deploy their UAVs while remaining unsighted at night to locate and identify ground risks equipped with NVGs? By remotely controlling the UAV’s LRF function, switching it on and off as required during an ISR mission.  

When a response team navigates their UAV to a potential border breach or security threat, a high-performance LRF is crucial. Switching the LRF on and off for a few seconds in flight makes it impossible to observe an ISR UAV with NVG, as there’s no continuously visible beam tracking terrain. It will merely be visible as a benign dot in the sky, which could be a satellite or star, allowing the ISR UAV to retain its stealth.  

 

Longer-range LRFs and first responder safety 

Border security and law enforcement ISR always have an element of risk, but using UAVs reduces the danger for ground teams. By identifying, confirming and locating border incursions or security risks, a UAV operating in the ISR role is your ideal first responder, provided it can retain stealth. That means it must be capable of high hover, reducing the possibility of detection by sound, as well as toggling the LRF beam function on and off, to stay undetected by NVGs.  

The stealth of UAVs enhances the probability of mission success for border security and law enforcement teams. Creating comprehensive information, awareness and advantage of surprise for ground teams when responding to border issues or escalating security threats.  

For any first responder team tasked with ISR, stealth is the primary advantage – the ability to search, confirm and locate without being detected. That’s why ISR teams value UAVs with longer-range, high-performance LRFs. These advanced EO/IR gimbal integrated LRF sensors enable higher altitude hovering, eliminating the UAV’s sound signature, and intermittent beam functions, allowing it to remain undetected by NVGs.  

Longer-range LRFs allow UAVs to own the night on ISR missions, detecting and confirming without ever being seen.