Ten-Year Counterdrug Technology Plan and Development
Roadmap
Wide Area Surveillance Technologies
Scope: This section addresses the general technology development for Wide Area
Surveillance (WAS). Applications of WAS technologies focus on the first three stages of
supply reduction (Growth, Processing and Transit) shown in the figure above. WAS
applications employ long range sensor systems to detect, monitor, and support interdiction
of illegal drugs during growth, manufacture, and transportation stages. WAS supports Goals
4 and 5 of the National Drug Control Strategy [1]:
Goal 4: Shield America's air, land and sea frontiers from the drug threat, and
Goal 5: Break foreign and domestic drug sources of supply.
Background: Marijuana, cocaine, and heroin are shipped
to the United States along principal smuggling routes from South America, the Eastern
Pacific, Western and Eastern Caribbean, and from the Golden Triangle routes in Southwest
Asia. Cocaine trafficking through the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific regions relies heavily
on maritime modes of transportation. Cocaine and heroin traffickers use aircraft, go-fast
boats, fishing vessels, coastal freighters, ocean going cargo ships and other vessels in
the Caribbean, Atlantic and Pacific. The WAS technology panel addresses the surveillance,
tracking, detection and monitoring of these routes by U.S. Coast Guard, Navy, Air Force
and U.S. Customs Service assets.
Operational Requirements: The operational requirements
for WAS address the tasks of detecting, monitoring, sorting and tracking aircraft,
maritime vessels, and land vehicles. The complex challenge of distinguishing drug
traffickers from legitimate commerce dominates the scientific and technical requirements
for WAS. Figure 5 lists the systems and supporting technologies needed to improve
operational capabilities in the WAS panel.
System improvements must be continued for Relocatable Over-The-Horizon Radar (ROTHR),
small boat detection, airborne interceptor radar, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs),
utilization of commercial satellites, and OTH ship tracking.
Figure 5: Wide Area Surveillance Operational Capabilities
Technology Development Roadmap: A general development
roadmap for Wide Area Surveillance is given in Figure 6. The largest single development
effort in WAS involves upgrades to the long-range surveillance relocatable over the
horizon radar (ROTHR) systems to enhance tracking and sorting of suspect targets. Current
limitations of ROTHR capabilities preclude the effective hand-off of intercepted targets
from DoD assets to Coast Guard and civilian law enforcement for ultimate apprehension. For
example, ROTHR block upgrades are planned to improve long-range tracking and sorting of
surface ships and fishing boats.
Figure 6: Technology Development Roadmap Wide
Area Surveillance
