Threat One: Contraband
Several items come to mind under this category. The first revolves around the escalating movement of illicit drugs. In the past several years since 9/11 his area has expanded exponentially due to the involvement of the organized drug cartels. The cartels have taken the place of the sporadic individual occurrences of the past. Today cartels have as much technology and funding as nation states. They have shown an amazing capability to morph in response to every government deterrence effort. The cartels first would use speed boats and ski do's to move product into harbors or land on isolated coastlines. Seeing these efforts somewhat compromised by government security efforts they have now moved to the utilization of small submarines,UAV's,and unmanned surface craft. Having the financial resources to seek out and utilize this technology is a chilling reality. Not only are these techniques being used to move drugs but they also have the potential to transport another even more dangerous set of threats to national security. The components of this threat could be any number of substances in the WMD category .The risk of nuclear, chemical or biological materials entering via a port or our coastline is real potential to consider.
Threat Two: Illegal Aliens
The entry of illegal aliens has always been an issue on our southern border and now with a renewed interest in organized international human trafficking cartels the threat has increased with regard to ports and coastal areas. We have seen all types of creative schemes being worked that have involved cargo containers, small craft of all types, swimmers and the use of ultra lights launched from off shore.
Threat Three: Terrorists
The potential for port entry by terrorists has always existed but today the threat has increased with the inclusion of groups affiliated with Hezbollah, Hamas, and al- Qaida. These groups are well funded and supplied with an impressive arsenal of technology to support all types of potential entry scenarios. The U.S. Customs & Border Patrol has indicated at least 2,000 individuals who are OTM, (other then Mexican), have crossed into the
U.S. In the last 18 months. At least 200 remain at large. These incursions have been verified through multiple forms of forensic evidence found at camps,” safe houses", and entry points.
Strategy for Protecting against the New Threats
Given the above examples all having the recurring theme regarding today's threats are ever changing it then becomes important to provide a scalable surveillance and security infrastructure. This improved approach would revolve around integration of multiple sensor modalities, an intuitive and analytical situational awareness oriented common operating picture, clear crisp pictorial display, and the ability to manage resources such as UAV's & UGV's. A potential solution set end to end could include infrared panoramic cameras from HGH Infrared, passing information to a common operating environment being managed by neural net software from Natural Selection Inc. allowing cutting edge display on Aydin Displays monitors. The scenario could unfold as follows; an Ultra-wide 360-degree panoramic field of view (FOV) camera from a group such as HGH Infrared with continuous IR monitoring capabilities allowing for
day or night data collection would be deployed in a strategic location near a harbor entrance or close to critical infrastructure such as an oil off loading facility . If potential blind spots are determined due to terrain or man made obstacles then multiple cameras may be required. This type of deployment will allow for 360 degree horizontal field of view (FOV) capturing infrared imagery in all directions simultaneously - unlike traditional cameras with limited horizontal FOVs . This 360-degree wide area coverage eliminates intruders' ability to predict traditional camera movement that causes breaches of perimeter into the harbor area or along the shoreline. The camera technology provides automatic intrusion detection and tracking allowing the user to quickly navigate the entire 360ยบ panoramic image to zoom in on areas of interest. The high-sensitivity infrared revolving camera head can detect a human from a distance of 1-3 kilometers, vehicles from 2-10 kilometers and vessels from 3-15 kilometers. This front end sensor would then be complimented by the capabilities of Natural Selection Inc.who have developed a flexible and scalable neural net based environment that when leveraged with a variety of sensor inputs & cloud based data will allow the user to create a situational awareness picture that can scale and adapt to the threat types indicated as they scale and morph over time. Consider how one could integrate pattern recognition, self learning and data mining into application modules addressing Threat Profiling, Modeling Adversary Behavior & Intent, Perimeter Security and links to managing and route planning for unmanned platforms on land, in the air or on the water. The collected sensor data along with deductive reasoning outcomes would then be projected into a combination of high resolution displays from groups such as Aydin who can deploy both in the field or a command and control center user oriented visuals. With the increasing dependence on unmanned systems to augment port and coastal security it would be very valuable to tie the sensor chain described into the control and management of those platforms. Unmanned systems and sensor payloads require highly reliable and repeatable inertial sensors for effective feedback in control navigation, and guidance. Moog Crossbow technology can be used in UAV’s,UUV’s and UGV’s to provide continuous orientation, position and heading information specially designed for the high dynamic and aggressive maneuvers. This control and guidance capability could be greatly aided by software modules and reasoning from Natural Selections that would register intent and plan potential routes these platforms could take to offer a greater degree of
surveillance and security coverage to port or coastal deployment.
