A New Eye In The Sky
The Civil Air Patrol, a volunteer auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, has been enlisted to conduct homeland security surveillance using their fleet of 550 small aircraft and new military technology adapted to small planes and nontechnical users.
So far, just 16 planes have been fitted with new hyperspectral enhanced reconnaissance technology that captures high-resolution images of the ground in more colors than the human eye can see. The digital video feed is processed by a laptop computer, which has software to identify changes to the scenery or out-of-place objects such as metal equipment in a field. The technology was originally developed to spot Soviet bombers during the 1980s, and reconfigured to identify hidden tanks in Bosnia, says Civil Air Patrol lieutenant colonel John Kershenstein, who helped create the technology at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and adapt it for use with small planes.
The Civil Air Patrol offers a significantly cheaper option than using expensive military aircraft or satellites; it costs approximately $300 per hour to conduct reconnaissance with the technology.
Digital files containing suspicious activity can be transferred quickly to law enforcement agencies for investigation, and the setup is ideal for spot-checks on ports, railways, and highways, says former Pennsylvania homeland security director and Delaware River Maritime Enterprise Council security team leader Earl Freilino II. The council has already contracted the Civil Air Patrol to conduct surveillance over the Port of Philadelphia.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Philadelphia Inquirer (03/03/05) P. C1; Holcomb, Henry J.