Stratech's iFerretâ„¢ Clinches Landmark Deployment in Military Airfield

Stratech Systems ("Stratech") has announced that its iFerretâ„¢ intelligent Airfield/Runway Surveillance and Foreign Object & Debris (FOD) Detection System has been selected for deployment by one of the world's top Air Forces. This marks the first time that iFerretâ„¢ will be installed in an airbase.

Approved by the US FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), iFerretâ„¢ is the world's first intelligent Vision-based FOD detection system, providing real-time, automated FOD detection, location, classification and recording. It can be deployed in civil airports as well as military airbases, to help prevent potential aircraft damage and fatalities caused by FOD. In this deployment, iFerretâ„¢ will also offer additional features which will be useful for the airbase operators.

Stratech Executive Chairman, Dr. David K.M. Chew, commented, "Airfield safety and security in an Air Force context is arguably even more critical than in civil aviation. Military aircraft typically cost millions of dollars to build and due to the way they operate, they are very susceptible to FOD damage. When we also consider the fact that many of these aircraft might be carrying large amounts of explosives during takeoff, the consequences of FOD incidents in a military airfield can be catastrophic."

The RADAS (Rapid Airfield Damage Assessment System) capability is one of the key additional features of this particular application of iFerretâ„¢. With this additional feature, iFerretâ„¢ will be able to rapidly detect, locate, categorise and measure the severity of damages and hazards on the runways and taxiways. It can even chart the damages resulting from an enemy attack, in the event one takes place, and provide a detailed report of the damages very swiftly, which will be useful in the context of Air Force operations. The iFerretâ„¢ hardware installed in this deployment will also be designed to withstand the relatively harsher working conditions in an airbase.

Being an intelligent Vision-based system, iFerret operates with passive sensor technology, making it much more suitable for airbase deployment than other systems. iFerretâ„¢ does not require assisted illumination or produce emissions, unlike other conventional radar-based systems used for FOD detection. This is important because the system will not interfere with the other sophisticated equipment used in Air Force operations, and it also eliminates the risk of the system exposing the airbase's location to the enemy.