Technology
Survivability is a design outcome, not a promise
We claim our perception platform increases the survivability of ISR aircraft. This page sets out the mechanisms behind that claim — how each one works, and what it replaces.
How IGNITE works
Capture everything. Send what matters.
IGNITE is the framework that turns a full 10K frame into a handful of findings — running your models at the edge so the aircraft transmits intelligence, not imagery. Every mechanism on this page depends on it.
- Capture — full 10K frameThe sensor takes in the entire tactical field of view at detection resolution, every frame.
- Infer — onboard, your modelFORGE tiles the frame across the GPU; your trusted AI runs in an isolated, encrypted container.
- Reduce — findings, not pixelsDetections are classified, tracked across frames and georeferenced. Raw imagery stays onboard.
- Deliver — intelligence outFindings leave as Cursor-on-Target metadata, straight into ATAK and existing C2 systems.
The same frame, narrowed by inference at each stage — 0 bps of raw data transmitted.
01 Claim — cover more, move faster
Full-scene capture removes the reason to loiter
A zoom sensor sees a narrow window of the scene, so the aircraft must fly a dense search pattern — and loiter over anything of interest to confirm it. Every extra minute over the objective is exposure.
A 10K sensor captures the entire tactical field of view at detection resolution in every frame. The aircraft flies a wider swath in fewer passes, at transit speed, and confirmation happens onboard — not by circling back.
- Up to 108× larger area per framethan a conventional zoom sensor at the same detection resolution.
- No zoom-switchingfull context and full detail exist in the same frame, so nothing is missed while zoomed in.
- Confirmation onboarddetections are classified and tracked at the edge — no revisit passes for identification.
Same area, same detection resolution. The search pattern — and the loiter orbits — are what the wide swath removes.
Conventional zoom sensor, same mission
- 48×
- less coverage per image
- 14×
- narrower field of view
- 4×
- the battery changes
Sapient 10K, same mission
- 1
- sensor covering the full corridor at detection resolution
- 0
- revisit passes for confirmation — targets classified onboard
- ↓
- time over the objective, and with it the exposure window
At altitude, a 2° beam turns every degree of platform motion into a lost target. A wide field of view keeps the target in frame — the stabilisation problem shrinks instead of the coverage.
02 Claim — fly higher, carry less
Optics built for altitude, not adapted to it
Flying higher keeps the aircraft above small-arms range and counter-UAS engagement envelopes — but a zoom sensor pays for altitude with a field of view of roughly two degrees. Holding a 2° beam on a target from a moving platform demands precision gimbal stabilisation: more mass, more mechanical complexity, more cost, more to fail.
Our lenses are engineered for aerial work: focal lengths matched to mission altitudes, resolving to the sensor's 10K grid across the full frame. Because the field of view stays wide, platform motion moves the target within the frame instead of out of it — and the stabilisation requirement relaxes from precision pointing to basic damping.
- Purpose-built aerial opticsfocal lengths from wide-area to standoff, resolving to 10K across the frame. [LENS SPECS]
- Relaxed stabilisationwide field of view tolerates platform motion — no precision gimbal, simpler and cheaper payloads.
- Altitude without penaltyhigher operating altitude at the same ground resolution, by lens selection rather than zoom. [ALTITUDE ENVELOPE]
03 Claim — emit almost nothing
The RF footprint scales with findings, not flight time
A video payload streams continuously — around 6 Mbps for the whole flight. Every minute airborne is a minute of emission: easy to detect, easy to direction-find, and dependent on a link that contested environments deny first.
Our platform processes everything onboard and initially transmits findings as metadata only — position, class, confidence. The emission profile is a near-silent baseline punctuated by brief bursts, one per finding. Imagery of a specific detection follows on request, not by default.
- Findings as metadata firstkilobyte-scale bursts per detection, not a continuous megabit stream.
- Emission scales with detectionsa quiet area produces a quiet aircraft — flight time no longer costs signature.
- Degrades gracefullylow bandwidth demand makes the link robust to interference; findings are held onboard if the link drops.
Illustrative emission profiles for the same mission. Raw imagery never streams by default — 0 bps of raw data transmitted.
The technology behind the mechanisms
Four layers, engineered as one payload
Each mechanism above depends on the layers below working together — captured once, processed at the edge, delivered as intelligence.
Layer 1 · Optics
Aerial lens technology
Purpose-built and commercial off-the-shelf optics matched to mission altitude and ground resolution — from wide-area survey to standoff — resolving to the full 10K sensor grid. Field-swappable on ECHO; fixed and sealed on ROOK.
Sensor family →Layer 2 · Sensing
10K global-shutter capture
100 MP CMOS at 10,000 × 10,000 pixels, all pixels exposed at once. Global shutter means no motion distortion from a moving platform — every frame is geometrically consistent for detection and geolocation.
ECHO and ROOK specs →Layer 3 · Edge compute
Every pixel processed onboard
FORGE tiles the 10K frame across the GPU and runs detection on every pixel at zero compression, with full-mission storage onboard. Nothing is discarded to fit a downlink; nothing needs the ground to think.
FORGE specs →Layer 4 · Intelligence
IGNITE:AI framework
Model-agnostic containers run your trusted AI at the edge — air-gapped and encrypted, with zero Sapient access. Findings are georeferenced, tracked across frames, and delivered as Cursor-on-Target straight into ATAK and existing C2 systems.
IGNITE architecture →Test the claims against your mission
Bring a platform and a mission profile — we will walk the numbers with you.