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Kestrel (surveillance System)
Kestrel is a wide-area motion imagery (or persistent surveillance) system used on aerostats at U.S. forward operating bases in Afghanistan to monitor the surrounding areas. Developed by Logos Technologies, the system is equipped with electro-optical and infrared cameras, providing day/night force protection and overwatch to troops. Development Kestrel has its roots in Constant Hawk, a wide-area sensor suite developed by Logos Technologies as well, in 2006, for use on crewed U.S. Army aircraft. In late 2010, the ISR Task Force and Army requested a version of Constant Hawk for aerostats. Contracted through the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command, the Kestrel program delivered four units the following year. However, these first four Kestrels lacked an infrared capability, and by June 2012, were replaced by 10 day/night systems and six spares. In 2017, Logos Technologies unveiled its even lighter Kestrel Block II wide-area motion imagery system at thInternational Defence Exhibition & Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wide-area Motion Imagery
Wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) is an approach to surveillance, reconnaissance, and intelligence-gathering that employs specialized software and a powerful camera system—usually airborne, and for extended periods of time—to detect and track hundreds of people and vehicles moving out in the open, over a city-sized area, kilometers in diameter. For this reason, WAMI is sometimes referred to as wide-area persistent surveillance (WAPS) or wide-area airborne surveillance (WAAS). A WAMI sensor images the entirety of its coverage area in real time. It also records and archives that imagery in a database for real-time and forensic analysis. WAMI operators can use this live and recorded imagery to spot activity otherwise missed by standard video cameras with narrower fields of view, analyze these activities in context, distinguish threats from normal patterns of behavior, and perform the work of a larger force. Military and security personnel are the typical users of WAMI, employing the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aerostats
An aerostat (, via French) is a lighter-than-air aircraft that gains its lift through the use of a buoyant gas. Aerostats include unpowered balloons and powered airships. A balloon may be free-flying or tethered. The average density of the craft is lower than the density of atmospheric air, because its main component is one or more gasbags, a lightweight skin containing a lifting gas (which could be heated air or any gas of lower density than air) to provide buoyancy, to which other components such as a gondola containing equipment or people are attached. Especially with airships, the gasbags are often protected by an outer envelope. Aerostats are so named because they use aerostatic lift which is a buoyant force that does not require movement through the surrounding air mass, resulting in VTOL ability. This contrasts with the heavy aerodynes that primarily use aerodynamic lift which requires the movement of a wing surface through the surrounding air mass. The term has also bee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Force Protection
Force protection (FP) refers to the concept of protecting military personnel, family members, civilians, facilities, equipment and operations from threats or hazards in order to preserve operational effectiveness and contribute to mission success. It is used as a doctrine by members of NATO. The concept of force protection was initially created after the Beirut barrack bombings in Lebanon in 1983. With its Cold War focus toward potential adversaries employing large conventional military forces at the time (e.g., the Soviet Union, etc.), the U.S. military had become complacent and predictable with regard to asymmetric attacks by state and non-state actors employing terrorist and guerilla methodologies . As a result, during what were ostensibly peacekeeping operations by a U.S. Marine Corps landing force ashore in Lebanon in 1983, it allowed two civilian trucks to breach the perimeter of the Marines' containment area and detonate their load of explosives as suicide vehicles adja ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Overwatch (military Tactic)
Overwatch is a force protection tactic in modern warfare where one small military unit, vehicle or aircraft supports another friendly unit while the latter is executing fire and movement tactics. The term was coined in U.S. military doctrine in the 1950s. An ''overwatching'' unit typically takes a vantage position (usually a high ground or tall structure with good defilade) where it can observe the terrain far ahead, especially likely enemy positions and movements. This allows it to act as a warning system against hostile aggressions and provide effective covering fire for advancing friendly units. See also * Combined arms * Bounding overwatch Bounding overwatch (also known as leapfrogging, moving overwatch, or "The Buddy System") is a military tactic of alternating movement of coordinated units to allow, if necessary, suppressive fire in support of offensive forward "fire and movemen ... References {{reflist Force protection tactics Land warfare ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constant Hawk
Constant Hawk is a United States Army wide-area motion imagery system flown on manned reconnaissance aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan. Constant Hawk was the first airborne Wide Area Persistent Sensor developed and deployed by the United States. It flew over 66 thousand flight hours in Iraq on five aircraft and is directly and indirectly credited with producing the intelligence data that dramatically reduced IED production and deployment. Like similar wide-area surveillance systems, such as Gorgon Stare, ARGUS-IS or the aerostat-mounted Kestrel, Constant Hawk was designed to give operators a fuller view of an area (such as a battlefield or operating base) than they would normally get from standard full-motion video cameras. The Army first deployed Constant Hawk in 2006 as part of a Quick Reaction Capability to help combat enemy ambushes and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Afghanistan and Iraq. Constant Hawk flew on Short 360-300s in Iraq under the command of Task Force ODI ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naval Air Systems Command
The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) provides materiel support for aircraft and airborne weapon systems for the United States Navy. It is one of the Echelon II Navy systems commands (SYSCOM), and was established in 1966 as the successor to the Navy's Bureau of Naval Weapons. NAVAIR is headquartered in Naval Air Station Patuxent River in St. Mary's County, Maryland, with military and civilian personnel stationed at eight locations across the continental United States and one site overseas. The current commander as of September 2021 is Vice Admiral Carl P. Chebi, USN. The vice commander is Leslie Taylor, SES. The deputy commander is Mr. Theodore J. Short Jr., SES. The Command Master Chief is CMDCM Todd A. Anselm, USN. NAVAIR's mission is to provide full life-cycle support of naval aviation aircraft, weapons and systems operated by Sailors and Marines. This support includes research, design, development and systems engineering, acquisition, test and evaluation, training facilit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DHS Directorate For Science And Technology
The Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is a component within the United States Department of Homeland Security. DHS-S&T serves as the research and development arm of the Department as it fulfills its national security mission. The Science and Technology Directorate is led by the Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Science and Technology, who is appointed by the President of the United States with confirmation by the United States Senate. Dimitri Kusnezov is the Under Secretary. Initiatives and programs The Under Secretary for Homeland Security Science and Technology currently administers a number of publicly available programs to promote independent development of homeland security technologies. SAFECOM is the Federal umbrella program designed to foster interoperability among the Nation’s public safety practitioners, so that they may communicate across disciplines and jurisdictions during an emergency. SAFETY Act provides liability protections that make it feasibl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System
The ARGUS-IS, or the Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System, is a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project contracted to BAE Systems. ARGUS is an advanced camera system that uses hundreds of cellphone cameras in a mosaic to video- and auto-track every moving object within a 15 square mile area. ARGUS is a form of wide-area persistent surveillance system that allows for one camera to provide such detailed video that users can collect "pattern-of-life" data and track individual people inside the footage anywhere within the field of regard. It uses air assets (manned aircraft, drones, blimps, aerostats) to persistently loiter and record video of a 36 square mile area with enough detail to track individual pedestrians, vehicles or other objects of interest as long as the air asset remains circling above. Automatic object-tracking software called Persistics from the Lawrence Livermore labs allows users to auto-track every moving obje ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gorgon Stare
Gorgon Stare is a video capture technology developed by the United States military. It is a spherical array of nine cameras attached to an aerial drone. The US Air Force calls it "wide-area surveillance sensor system".Air Force Magazine.com: ''The New Normal for RPAs'', by Marc V. Schanz, Senior Editor , November 2011, Vol. 94, No. 11, page53. Background The system is capable of capturing motion imagery of an entire city, which can then be analyzed by people or an , such as the |
Wide-area Motion Imagery
Wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) is an approach to surveillance, reconnaissance, and intelligence-gathering that employs specialized software and a powerful camera system—usually airborne, and for extended periods of time—to detect and track hundreds of people and vehicles moving out in the open, over a city-sized area, kilometers in diameter. For this reason, WAMI is sometimes referred to as wide-area persistent surveillance (WAPS) or wide-area airborne surveillance (WAAS). A WAMI sensor images the entirety of its coverage area in real time. It also records and archives that imagery in a database for real-time and forensic analysis. WAMI operators can use this live and recorded imagery to spot activity otherwise missed by standard video cameras with narrower fields of view, analyze these activities in context, distinguish threats from normal patterns of behavior, and perform the work of a larger force. Military and security personnel are the typical users of WAMI, employing the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aerostats
An aerostat (, via French) is a lighter-than-air aircraft that gains its lift through the use of a buoyant gas. Aerostats include unpowered balloons and powered airships. A balloon may be free-flying or tethered. The average density of the craft is lower than the density of atmospheric air, because its main component is one or more gasbags, a lightweight skin containing a lifting gas (which could be heated air or any gas of lower density than air) to provide buoyancy, to which other components such as a gondola containing equipment or people are attached. Especially with airships, the gasbags are often protected by an outer envelope. Aerostats are so named because they use aerostatic lift which is a buoyant force that does not require movement through the surrounding air mass, resulting in VTOL ability. This contrasts with the heavy aerodynes that primarily use aerodynamic lift which requires the movement of a wing surface through the surrounding air mass. The term has also bee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
