Payload agnostic. Mission focused.

The Payloads Directorate team at Insitu is tasked with extending the versatility and value of our customers' Insitu systems. The team's mantra: Be payload agnostic and stay customer-mission focused. We understand that the customer cares more about the mission and the data we provide to make it possible than the platform used to deliver it. By solving for specific mission challenges, the Payloads Directorate team is able to deliver the right capabilities to achieve the best type of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) value to the customer.

Develop. Test. Field. Prove.

The Payloads Directorate team is constantly developing partnerships with OEMs — and experimenting, testing, deploying, and assessing the smartest and best payload configurations for our customers. We have more than 100 payloads on our list, and 60 payload partners on our team. When working with customers, the team begins by assessing the types of payload configurations that will make the biggest difference toward mission success. We then assess the options for the chosen platform, and work to creatively solve for maximum impact and value.

The end result is a UAS platform that is more mission-specific — bringing new technologies, partnerships and evolving capabilities to the field.

Configured to deliver

The Payloads Directorate team is actively collecting OEM capability-driven payloads, and tracking 100 different payloads. The team's depth of knowledge, penchant for innovation and get-it-done attitude is proven: In 2011, the team configured four unique payloads onto the Integrator platform for a customer in just one week.

Options, innovations and more options

No one looks harder for options and innovations for UAS than the Payloads Directorate team. The team is currently fielding and developing new options, including:

Imagers and lasers for:

• Daylight and poor visibility missions
• Bathymetry missions
• Detections, marking and ranging missions
• Wide-area imagery collections
• Spectral imagery collection, including full-motion video, magnetic anomaly detections and concealed object detection

Signals collections and electronic warfare for:

• Identification of emitters
• Geolocation and bearing
• Demodulation of signals
• Clear signals
• Complex emitters

Communications and comms relay for:

• Ground radio comms between locations
• Data links between separate aircraft and ground
• Beyond line-of-sight communications
• Cell networks

Mapping for:

• High-resolution, geo-rectified imagery
• Operation map updates
• Survey missions
• 3D mapping

SAR, GMTI and radar for:

• Change detection
• Wide-area search
• Search and rescue

Industry-wide opportunities

The Payloads Directorate team's search for the best and most capable configurations also presents an opportunity for new partnerships throughout the UAS payloads industry, helping to drive industry-wide advancements and market opportunities — as well as accelerating flight testing and certification. The team's work also enables government program officers to better understand and stay current on UAS capabilities so their acquisition strategies and requirements remain as current as possible in the fast-moving business of agile ISR delivery.