Australian Army receives General Dynamics D-VEX

The Australian Army has taken delivery of two D-VEX video capture and exploitation systems from General Dynamics Mediaware. The systems have been integrated into the Shadow 200 Tactical Unmanned Aerial System (TUAS) operating in Afghanistan, and will enhance the force’s capacity to distribute mission-critical, actionable intelligence among Australian troops and coalition forces.

The D-VEX system helps manage large volumes of full motion video and turns data into real-time actionable intelligence for forward-deployed forces. Designed for in-theatre operations, the versatile and portable video exploitation system captures and manages full motion video from airborne surveillance platforms.

According to General Dynamics Mediaware, the system has the ability to record and index video with metadata to derive real-time actionable intelligence, providing users with detailed forensic analysis through its comprehensive search and mark-up capabilities. D-VEX also supports open defence standards, including the Motion Imagery Standards Profile (MISP) and STANAG 4609. The system also works with commercially-available compact mobile hardware, such as a laptop.

Michael Manzo, director of General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems' Geospatial Solutions Imagery Systems division, said: ‘D-VEX provides the Australian Army with next-generation tools for real-time and forensic analysis of airborne surveillance video. It will enhance and streamline the army's ability to derive timely, relevant and accurate geospatial intelligence from the Shadow TUAS.’

Dr Kevin Moore, chief technology officer of General Dynamics Mediaware, added: ‘Managing the thousands of hours of video collected by the Shadow 200 TUAS presented the army with a sizable data processing and analytics challenge. With the D-VEX solution, the video archive is easily searchable, enabling analysts to identify, tag and analyse critical events in real-time for consistent, reliable and standards-compliant results.’