The Integrated Weather Observation System (IWOS) will be the official remote weather station employed by the U.S. Air Force (USAF). The IWOS will soon be the primary man-portable weather station used by the USAF in gathering essential meteorological data from remote airfields in austere or denied areas. The previous remote weather station, which was in use for over 20 years, consisted of up to 80 separate components, weighed approximately 100 lb, and required at least 30 minutes and 2 to 3 service members to set up. The IWOS, by contrast, weighs just 25 lb, fits inside a single case, and takes less than 15 minutes for one service member to install. This solution will greatly improve the efficiency of USAF operations and the safety of Air Force service members in hostile terrain where meteorological data is limited and needed.
The IWOS was developed in response to a competitive solicitation through the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) Small Business Innovation Research Science & Technology Directorate (SBIR S&T). Intellisense Systems was awarded multi-phase contracts to develop a mobile weather station that is competitive with larger, permanent environmental-monitoring systems in terms of range, resolution, and accuracy. Leveraging our experience with the proven Micro Weather Station (MWS®), the IWOS consolidates many weather observation capabilities using a ruggedized, interlocking cylindrical design.
“The IWOS is truly the next generation weather system for the DoD,” said David Miller, Vice-President and General Manager of Tactical Systems at Intellisense. “It is designed to supply warfighters with an all-in-one weather sensing solution in an innovative small form-factor package, and we are proud to be supporting our servicemen and women with an agile and highly accurate solution. It has taken three-and-a-half years to develop the IWOS, which is extremely fast for an industry where the incumbent competitors take over a decade to develop and qualify new sensor technology.”
It combines over a dozen key weather parameters, including temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed/direction, and cloud layer height to 25,000 ft, with data processing, data logging, a solar power system, and secure communications to help maintain the USAF’s domain advantage anywhere in the world. The IWOS is currently in its final phase of development, which will focus on qualification testing and transitioning the system into full-rate production. It is being fully developed and manufactured at Intellisense’s headquarters in Torrance, California. This final development phase is expected to be completed in 2023, and the USAF will begin replacing their existing systems around the world over the next few years.
Intellisense Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of advanced sensing and display solutions supporting a data continuum from acquisition to visualization. We enhance our hardware with software that adds intelligence to our systems and can turn raw data into useful information for improved decision making and process automation. Intellisense Systems offers both off-the-shelf products and custom development services. These services include research and development, requirements analysis, design, systems integration, prototyping, production, testing, field support, and training. Headquartered in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, the company occupies 70,000 square feet within our Torrance campus. Our manufacturing capabilities include electronics fabrication, unit qualification testing, systems integration, and volume production with full quality assurance. Intellisense Systems is qualified across engineering, accounting, and manufacturing to serve government and commercial customers.