--Announcement made at AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems NA 2006, Orlando, FL--
Bingen, WA, August 29, 2006 – ImSAR (Salem, UT), the world leader in miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), in partnership with Insitu (Bingen, WA), a pioneer developer of long-range, unmanned, autonomous aircraft, today announced that the two companies have completed prototype development of the world’s smallest SAR: the one-pound NanoSAR.

“This is a revolutionary technological accomplishment that will effectively bring the all-weather reconnaissance and geolocation capabilities of Synthetic Aperture Radar to almost all airborne platforms, including Insitu’s Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs),” stated Ryan Smith, founder of ImSAR.

Electro-optical and infrared cameras generally have the most difficulty operating during inclement weather, such as in heavy precipitation or sandstorms, instances in which situational awareness is the most important. In the past, the ability to carry Synthetic Aperture Radar that could perform effectively in the worst weather was limited to only the largest and most costly UAS platforms.

With the ground-breaking introduction of the one-pound NanoSAR, however, even Insitu’s small, lightweight UAS platforms will have the capability to image and track moving objects in adverse conditions and reduced visibility.

The partnership between ImSAR and Insitu was critical to ImSAR’s development of the innovative NanoSAR, as it ensures that the technology is smoothly and successfully integrated into Insitu’s UASs without interoperability or other technical issues.

Steven Sliwa, Insitu’s president and CEO, stated that he has been especially pleased with the working relationship between the two companies and is even more satisfied with the results. “By incorporating this new technology into our UASs, we believe it will ultimately help save the lives of troops on the ground and, as such, will be an extremely important addition to the military’s ability to combat the Global War on Terror,” he said.

Applications of the one-pound NanoSAR include:

• Geolocation for remote munitions cueing
• Broad area reconnaissance
• Search and rescue operations
• Ground Motion Target Indication (GMTI) 

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