Category Archives: ISR

ViDAR Test

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ViDAR is a high resolution, large area, computer aided, optical search system we looked at earlier. Reportedly the CG tested this system in 2014.

Sentient demonstrates ViDAR optical radar to the US Coast Guard

The following is a press release from ViDAR’s developer Sentient Vision Systems recporting a recent test done with the Coast Guard.

Melbourne, Australia, 29 September, 2016 –

Sentient today announced the successful completion of its live demonstration of ViDAR with the US Coast Guard. The trial was conducted off Cape Cod, MA, over a week with a team from the USCG Research and Development Centre, Hood Technologies and TacAero. The demonstration highlighted ViDAR’s capability to find objects of interest at great distance, whilst searching over wide tracts of ocean from a small UAS.

The demonstration was part of the Coast Guard’s continuing evaluation of small UAS technologies and sensors currently available in the commercial market.

“Detection is critical to bringing reliability to the surveillance task. With limited size and power, small and tactical UAS are heavily constrained in what they can carry and are often therefore limited to observing what has already been found” said Simon Olsen, Sentient’s Director of Business Development, Strategy and Partnerships.  “ViDAR is the first technology with the ability to conduct wide area search from a small/tactical UAS”

The US Coast Guard demonstration of ViDAR involved an exhaustive series of search flights designed to find vessels and objects representative of Coast Guard missions. The targets were placed in the search area at locations unknown to the ViDAR operator.

Highlights from the demonstration include ViDAR successfully, and autonomously, detecting a fast boat at 17.7nm, a life raft at 3.7nm, a person in the water at 1.9nm and a shipping vessel at over 33nm. Each time ViDAR detected an object, a small image was sent to the ground automatically; allowing the operator to move from initial detection, to classification and identification in seconds.

ViDAR comprises a high-resolution digital camera that continuously scans the ocean in a 180-degree arc in front of the air vehicle. The ViDAR software autonomously detects any object on the surface of the ocean, providing the ground control station with an image and location coordinate of each object detected in real time. The zoom-able spotter sensor can then be cross-cued to the object for closer inspection, while ViDAR continues to provide ongoing situational awareness.

Operating in effect like an optical radar, ViDAR enables a wide field of view, resulting in over 80 times ocean coverage compared with existing optics.

Looks like this system has been used on Scan Eagle. Recently the Coast Guard signed its first contract to provide a Scan Eagle for operation from USCGC Stratton. The Coast Guard has been hesitant to employ UAVs that did not have radars because optical systems were not very good at search. But even radars are probably not very good at detecting semi-submersible. Perhaps this might actually be better.

If it works as advertised, hopefully see we will more of this system.

ACTUV and TALONS–Cheaper High Tech

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NavyRecognition reports that DARPA has tested a combination of two of their projects that we have previously discussed, the Active Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) and the Towed Airborne Lift of Naval Systems (TALONS). This is a bit of departure for the ACTUV since it is designed to track submarines, but it might be applicable to counter drug operations in the Eastern Pacific.

“TALONS’ surface-track radar extended its range by 500 percent—six times—compared to its range at sea level. Its electro-optical/infrared scanner doubled its observed discrimination range. The TALONS team plugged in a commercial handheld omnidirectional radio; that radio’s range more than tripled.”

SOUTHCOM has been advocating using his area of operations as a testing ground. Perhaps DARPA would like to try this in the drug Transit Zone.

This is potentially high tech like our computers and cell phones, works better, cost less.

“TALONS is part of DARPA’s Phase 1 research for Tern, a joint program between DARPA and the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR). Now that at-sea demonstration is complete, DARPA is transitioning TALONS to the Navy.”

Wonder if it might fit on the Webber class WPCs? They are larger than the ACTUV.

Here is the DARPA news release.

Commandant’s Strategic Intent, Mid-Term Report

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Coast Guard Capt. Douglas Nash, commanding officer of Coast Guard Air Sation Sacramento, salutes a Coast Guard C-27J pilot during a change of watch ceremony at Air Station Sacramento's hanger in McClellan Park, Thursday, July 1, 2016. The ceremony marked the final day that an HC-130 Hercules crew stood the watch at Air Station Sacramento and introduced the newest aircraft. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Loumania Stewart

Procurement of 14 C-27J aircraft was one of the achievements sited. C-27Js replace C-130s at CGAS Sacramento. 

The Commandant has issued a mid-term update on his earlier published “Strategic Intent, 2015-2019” (pdf). The new document is available in pdf format. You can find it here: “United States Coast Guard Commandant’s Strategic Intent, 2015-2019, Mid-Term Report.”

It is relatively short and readable at 21 pages. The recurring themes of the Commandant’s administration are all there, starting with TOC (transnational organized crime) and its deleterious effect on Western Hemisphere governance and prosperity. It does read a little like an Officer Evaluation Report input.

There is nothing particularly surprising here, but even for me, the enumeration of the scope the Coast Guard’s authorities, responsibilities, and international contacts is still mind boggling.

I am not going to try to summarize the report, but there were a few things that struck me.

The Commandant mentions service life extension programs for the seagoing buoy tenders (already begun), the 47 foot MLBs, and the 87 foot WPBs (in the future), but there is no mention of what we will do about the inland tender fleet. There will also be a life extension program for helicopters before they are finally replaced.

“Extend the service life of our rotary wing assets and align with DOD’s Future Vertical Lift initiative.”

There is mention of a program I was not aware of, the “Defense Threat Reduction Agency National Coast Watch System project.” The Defense Threat Reduction Agency attempts to track and reduce the WMD threat. It is not really clear what our role is here. We know about the container inspection programs in foreign ports. Is that it, or is there more to this? (that can be discussed at an unclassified level.)

French Navy Using Satellites for Maritime Domain Awareness Including CG Missions

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Navy Recognition is reporting a contract between the French Navy and a consortium of Airbus Defence and Space and Telespazio France that would provide “user-friendly” 24 hour a day access to satellite derived  optical and radar imaging and AIS (Automatic Identification System) data to each maritime zone command.

Airbus Defence and Space and Telespazio France will be utilising a unique combination of satellites for the Trimaran 2 service, which supplements the range of resources already implemented by the French Navy and form an integral part of its operations concept. This contract, which runs from 2016 to 2020, will improve the effectiveness of the Navy’s missions on the world’s oceans: whether combating trafficking, preventing illegal immigration, performing search and rescue operations at sea, detecting pollution and toxic discharges, or monitoring protected maritime areas. (emphasis applied–Chuck)

France has a huge Exclusive Economic Zone, second only to that of the US and very nearly as large, but its Navy, which also does Coast Guard functions, is smaller than the US Coast Guard.

Apparently the same contractors are providing similar data to the Australian Border Force and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).

Good News–and Bad, from the Western Pacific

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A great New York Times article , “Palau vs the Poachers,” looking at Palau’s attempts to police their waters as a microcosm of the problems created by poaching and overfishing.

I’ll repeat my oft stated contention that we do not spend nearly enough time in the Western Pacific where the US has a huge chunk of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). There is a new Marine Reserve to protect. Plus we have an obligation to help former US territories that are now independent island nations struggling to effectively protect their own fisheries.

The work of “SkyTruth” and Google in crowd sourcing fisheries intelligence recounted here is encouraging, but there is simply to little enforcement. There were a couple of paragraphs that particularly stood out to me.

The oceans belong to everyone and no one, and the general perception is that they are too big to need protection. We also tend to think of fish as an ever-regenerating crop, there forever for our taking. But roughly 90 percent of the world’s ocean stocks are depleted or overexploited; one study predicts that by 2050, the sea could contain more plastic waste than fish. Though most governments have neither the inclination nor the resources to patrol the oceans, Palau is trying a different approach, and whether it succeeds or fails may have consequences for the entire planet.

In the span of one human lifetime, humankind has become brutally adept at plundering the seas. In the late 1940s, the annual global catch was roughly 16.5 million tons; now, after decades of innovation, this number is about 94 million tons. ‘‘That’s equivalent in weight of the entire human population at the turn of the 20th century, removed from the sea each and every year,’’ Paul Greenberg, an author of books about fish and seafood, told me.

Another Competitor for Canada’s Fixed Wing SAR Aircraft

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Photo: Embraer KC-390, company photo

DefenseNews is reporting another competitor is set to enter the competition to replace Canada’s aging fixed wing SAR aircraft fleet, the Embraer KC-390.

In the photo, this aircraft looks small, but it actually has a greater max gross weight and cargo capacity than a C-130J. It has better than 90% of the J model’s range and is faster.

They claim, it was intended as a SAR aircraft from it inception.

“Geraldo Gomes, vice president of business development for Embraer Defense and Security, said … the KC-390 was designed to be a search-and-rescue aircraft and that one of its strong selling points is its low life-cycle costs.”

New ISR Sensor

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Australia's Maritime Safety Authority will induct new search and rescue aircraft in the near future, with enhanced capabilities. Four Bombardier Challenger 604 jet aircraft will enter service from August 2016 and onwards.

Navy Recognition reports installation of a new type of sensor on four Australian medium range search aircraft. (Looks a lot like an HU-25 doesn’t it? It is a contracted SAR resource.)

This new sensor, Sentient Vision’s Kestrel Maritime ViDAR (Visual Detection and Ranging), is apparently a computer aided visual recognition system intended to detect objects as small as people in the water. A claimed advantage over human lookouts is that system performance does not degrade due to fatigue like human observers.

Apparently this technology is being tested on Scan Eagle and Firescout Unmanned Air Systems too. It is claimed that the system improves the search function on these UAS as much at 80 times that of unaided Electro-Optic systems.

It was reportedly tested by the USCG  “in 2014 and managed to detect small targets at a distance of more than 20nm.” I tried to find out a little bit more about the Coast Guard test, and apparently it was associated with the experiments with an aerostat deployed from the Healey.

Anyone know if this system has a future in the USCG?

Kites for Energy Savings and Maritime Domain Awareness

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gCaptain is reporting that, since 2012, the Irish Naval Service has been experimenting with using kite sails to give their ships a fuel saving boost and to hoist aloft surveillance equipment up to 300 meters (1000 feet) into the air.  They now consider the technology mature enough to be commercialized.

Putting sensors at 1000 feet gives a horizon distance of 38.7 miles compared with 8.7 miles for a more typical height of 50 feet.

The Irish Naval Service, their missions, and their ships look more like the US Coast Guard than the US Navy. This technology might have applications for the Coast Guard. Perhaps it is worth a look by the Research and Development Center.

It looks like the Navy may be working on something that looks similar, TALONS, but is only intended to hoist sensors, not improve fuel economy.