Intelligence And Surveillance Capabilities Showcased For FRONTEX

Advanced border surveillance capabilities from an optionally piloted vehicle was demonstrated recently during a European exercise hosted by FRONTEX, an EU agency based in Warsaw created to strengthen the security of the European Union external borders.

DA42 OPV File Photo

The exercise was designed to view existing capabilities in a live environment. The primary goal of the exercise was to evaluate how optionally piloted vehicles or unmanned vehicles can further enhance border surveillance in the maritime domain. Lockheed Martin demonstrated how quickly optionally piloted vehicles could collect intelligence on suspicious activity or detect boats in distress, then immediately send imagery, streaming video and other gathered intelligence to a ground station.

Using a Diamond Airborne Sensing aircraft equipped with a FLIR Electro Optical/InfraRed camera and a robust communications suite, Lockheed Martin demonstrated how the aircraft collected high definition video and imagery over several flights. Captured information was then transmitted to a ground system via both line of sight and beyond line of sight communications, providing users on the ground with better situational understanding and broader knowledge of the immediate environment. In near real-time, ground station analysts were able to view the data, then update situational awareness displays for all users in the enterprise. Lockheed Martin's team also demonstrated how to share situational awareness pictures with a wide range of display technologies, ranging from computers to handheld devices.

"Lockheed Martin presented an affordable, integrated solution tailored to address specific European border management requirements," said Jim Quinn, vice president of C4ISR Systems with Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Defense. "We demonstrated how ISR tools can be rapidly deployed, while maintaining linkage to existing infrastructure."

FMI: www.lockheedmartin.com, www.frontex.europa.eu