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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 (military tactic), 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 Naval Air Systems Command, 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 ima ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wide-area Motion Imagery
Wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) is an approach to surveillance, reconnaissance, and Military intelligence, intelligence-gathering that employs specialized software and a powerful camera system—usually airborne, and for extended periods of time—to object detection, detect and video tracking, 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 secur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aerostats
An aerostat (, via French) or lighter-than-air aircraft is an aircraft that relies on buoyancy to maintain flight. Aerostats include unpowered balloons (free-flying or tethered) and powered airships. The relative density of an aerostat as a whole is lower than that of the surrounding atmospheric air (hence the name "lighter-than-air"). Its main component is one or more gas capsules made of lightweight skins, containing a lifting gas (hot air, or any gas with lower density than air, typically hydrogen or helium) that displaces a large volume of air to generate enough buoyancy to overcome its own weight. Payload (passengers and cargo) can then be carried on attached components such as a basket, a gondola, a cabin or various hardpoints. With airships, which need to be able to fly against wind, the lifting gas capsules are often protected by a more rigid outer envelope or an airframe, with other gasbags such as ballonets to help modulate buoyancy. Aerostats are so named because ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Force Protection
Force protection (FP) is 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 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, 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 United States Armed Forces, U.S. military had become complacent and predictable with regard to asymmetric attacks by state and non-state actors employing terrorist and guerrilla methodologies . As a result, during what were ostensibly peacekeeping operations by a U.S. Marine Corps landing force ashore in Lebanon in 1983, two explosives-laden civilian trucks were able to breach the perimeter of the Marines' containment ... [...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, military vehicle, vehicle, or military aircraft, aircraft supports another friendly unit while the latter executes fire and movement tactics. The term was neologism, 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 aggression and provide effective covering fire for advancing friendly units. See also * List of established military terms * Combined arms * Bounding overwatch References {{reflist Force protection tactics Land warfare Military terminology ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constant Hawk
Constant Hawk is a United States Army wide-area motion imagery system flown on crewed 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 O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naval Air Systems Command
The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) provides materiel support for aeronaval 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 Captain Todd M. Evans, USN. 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 evaluat ... [...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. 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. The SAFETY Act provides liability protections that make it feasible for sellers of qualified antiterrorism ... [...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 it uses hundreds of cellphone cameras in a mosaic to video- and auto-track every moving object within a area. ARGUS is a form of wide-area persistent surveillance system which 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 (crewed aircraft, drones, blimps, aerostats) to persistently loiter and record video of a 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 lab allows users to auto-track every moving object within the field of regard (36 ... [...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"., 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 artificial intelligence, such as the Mind's Eye project being developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. This motion imagery is not considered video as it is collected at fewer frames per second than the standard definition of video; TV-like quality of video is 24–60 FPS. Gorgon Stare needs to utilize a system of tagging and metadata to be fully effective. The Air Force planned to deliver one system in 2011, another in 2012, and a third in 2014, though they would not enter service until accepted by the commander in the theatre of operations. Gorgon Stare was under development f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wide-area Motion Imagery
Wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) is an approach to surveillance, reconnaissance, and Military intelligence, intelligence-gathering that employs specialized software and a powerful camera system—usually airborne, and for extended periods of time—to object detection, detect and video tracking, 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 secur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aerostats
An aerostat (, via French) or lighter-than-air aircraft is an aircraft that relies on buoyancy to maintain flight. Aerostats include unpowered balloons (free-flying or tethered) and powered airships. The relative density of an aerostat as a whole is lower than that of the surrounding atmospheric air (hence the name "lighter-than-air"). Its main component is one or more gas capsules made of lightweight skins, containing a lifting gas (hot air, or any gas with lower density than air, typically hydrogen or helium) that displaces a large volume of air to generate enough buoyancy to overcome its own weight. Payload (passengers and cargo) can then be carried on attached components such as a basket, a gondola, a cabin or various hardpoints. With airships, which need to be able to fly against wind, the lifting gas capsules are often protected by a more rigid outer envelope or an airframe, with other gasbags such as ballonets to help modulate buoyancy. Aerostats are so named because ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
