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04-01-2009, 09:11 PM
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/NYPD_seeks_to_expand_surveillance_cameras_0401.htm l
NYPD seeks to expand surveillance cameras, license plate readers
If New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has his way, surveillance cameras will blanket the entire midtown area of New York City.
Kelly says he intends to pattern the surveillance system after the "ring of steel" system now used in London. "That would mean the cameras and the license plate readers and coordinate it from the new coordination center located in lower Manhattan," said Kelly. The system is intended as an "anti-terrorism" measure.
"The idea, Kelly testified before a City Council committee, is to allow police to do everything they do downtown - scan license plates, monitor surveillance video cameras and use radiation and bioterrorism detectors - between 34th and 59th streets, from river to river," Newsday reports. The NYPD has already obtained most of the necessary $92 million but federal grant funds are needed to complete the project.
The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Police Department, questioning how citizens' privacy will be balanced against security concerns.
"The NYPD must not spend vast amounts of public money blanketing downtown and Midtown Manhattan in surveillance cameras without any public discussion of its plans and without clear privacy protections," Donna Lieberman, New York Civil Liberties Union executive director, said. "The City Council must establish a formal public review process for these surveillance proposals and a statutory scheme to safeguard the privacy of millions of law-abiding New Yorkers."
"The Department's proposed privacy guidelines are entirely illusory and contain no real protection," said Christopher Dunn. "Our elected lawmakers need step in and subject this entire surveillance system to a thorough public review."
VIDEO (http://rawstory.com/news/2008/NYPD_seeks_to_expand_surveillance_cameras_0401.htm l)
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http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/03/airforce_blimp_032809/
ISR blimp would fly for 10 years uninterrupted
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Mar 28, 2009 8:42:19 EDT
A blimp that hovers at 65,000 feet and stays aloft for a decade is what the Air Force hopes within five years will revolutionize its intelligence gathering.
Early estimates put the price at $400 million, according to the service’s chief scientist, Werner J.A. Dahm, who is overseeing the project.
The 450-foot-long airship would be a “potentially game-changing” addition to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities because of its 10-year flight time and a radar unit so massive it wouldn’t fit into any aircraft now in the service’s fleet, Dahm said.
“It would allow us to observe remarkably fine details over very long periods,” he said. “That lets us better understand how an adversary operates, how to anticipate their actions, how to interpret their intent, and many other things that we need today, tomorrow and beyond.”
The radar would track coalition and enemy movements on land, sea and air, advancing the capabilities provided by satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles, such as the Predator and the Reaper.
UAVs maintain a presence over the battlefield by cycling in and out of orbits; the blimp, too, would have that “unblinking eye” but without the support of launching and landing aircraft that the unending orbits demand, Dahm said.
The Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, the military’s research arm, has been developing the aircraft since 2004. Work will start this year on the Integrated Sensor Is the Structure, or ISIS, a scaled-down version designed to fly a year without landing.
To keep the blimp in the air 10 years, scientists and engineers have had to design a hull that can withstand the elements at 65,000 feet, including a temperature of 130 degrees below zero, and produce a power source that can regenerate energy.
“We think we have the solutions to meet those technical challenges, and ISIS will let us try to put them all together into a complete functioning system,” Dahm said.
The hull material now can withstand a low of 150 degrees below zero and retain 85 percent of its fiber strength for 22 years, according to a DARPA presentation. Fuel cells recharged by the sun, instead of batteries, will power the blimp.
Lift will come from helium; the craft would have a sustained airspeed of 60 knots and a sprint speed of 100 knots, DARPA said.
Still, Dahm cautions, more work needs to be done. For example, the researchers still need to ensure the blimp can defend itself. Flying at 65,000 feet, the aircraft won’t be vulnerable to many enemy anti-aircraft systems but will be susceptible to “missiles and other threats,” Dahm said. “We need to assess if the technologies needed to make such systems possible are ready, and we need to learn how to effectively integrate those technologies into practical systems,” he said.
Right now, blimps with cameras are tethered above bases in Iraq and Afghanistan to provide security. The blimp in development, though, won’t be like any the military has ever used, Dahm said.
“We’ve never put a radar this large into a blimp before, and we’ve never tried to keep a blimp aloft continuously for years at these altitudes,” he said. “So, while it is a blimp, what we are doing in this joint DARPA/Air Force effort really is something absolutely revolutionary.”
NYPD seeks to expand surveillance cameras, license plate readers
If New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has his way, surveillance cameras will blanket the entire midtown area of New York City.
Kelly says he intends to pattern the surveillance system after the "ring of steel" system now used in London. "That would mean the cameras and the license plate readers and coordinate it from the new coordination center located in lower Manhattan," said Kelly. The system is intended as an "anti-terrorism" measure.
"The idea, Kelly testified before a City Council committee, is to allow police to do everything they do downtown - scan license plates, monitor surveillance video cameras and use radiation and bioterrorism detectors - between 34th and 59th streets, from river to river," Newsday reports. The NYPD has already obtained most of the necessary $92 million but federal grant funds are needed to complete the project.
The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Police Department, questioning how citizens' privacy will be balanced against security concerns.
"The NYPD must not spend vast amounts of public money blanketing downtown and Midtown Manhattan in surveillance cameras without any public discussion of its plans and without clear privacy protections," Donna Lieberman, New York Civil Liberties Union executive director, said. "The City Council must establish a formal public review process for these surveillance proposals and a statutory scheme to safeguard the privacy of millions of law-abiding New Yorkers."
"The Department's proposed privacy guidelines are entirely illusory and contain no real protection," said Christopher Dunn. "Our elected lawmakers need step in and subject this entire surveillance system to a thorough public review."
VIDEO (http://rawstory.com/news/2008/NYPD_seeks_to_expand_surveillance_cameras_0401.htm l)
-
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/03/airforce_blimp_032809/
ISR blimp would fly for 10 years uninterrupted
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Mar 28, 2009 8:42:19 EDT
A blimp that hovers at 65,000 feet and stays aloft for a decade is what the Air Force hopes within five years will revolutionize its intelligence gathering.
Early estimates put the price at $400 million, according to the service’s chief scientist, Werner J.A. Dahm, who is overseeing the project.
The 450-foot-long airship would be a “potentially game-changing” addition to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities because of its 10-year flight time and a radar unit so massive it wouldn’t fit into any aircraft now in the service’s fleet, Dahm said.
“It would allow us to observe remarkably fine details over very long periods,” he said. “That lets us better understand how an adversary operates, how to anticipate their actions, how to interpret their intent, and many other things that we need today, tomorrow and beyond.”
The radar would track coalition and enemy movements on land, sea and air, advancing the capabilities provided by satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles, such as the Predator and the Reaper.
UAVs maintain a presence over the battlefield by cycling in and out of orbits; the blimp, too, would have that “unblinking eye” but without the support of launching and landing aircraft that the unending orbits demand, Dahm said.
The Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, the military’s research arm, has been developing the aircraft since 2004. Work will start this year on the Integrated Sensor Is the Structure, or ISIS, a scaled-down version designed to fly a year without landing.
To keep the blimp in the air 10 years, scientists and engineers have had to design a hull that can withstand the elements at 65,000 feet, including a temperature of 130 degrees below zero, and produce a power source that can regenerate energy.
“We think we have the solutions to meet those technical challenges, and ISIS will let us try to put them all together into a complete functioning system,” Dahm said.
The hull material now can withstand a low of 150 degrees below zero and retain 85 percent of its fiber strength for 22 years, according to a DARPA presentation. Fuel cells recharged by the sun, instead of batteries, will power the blimp.
Lift will come from helium; the craft would have a sustained airspeed of 60 knots and a sprint speed of 100 knots, DARPA said.
Still, Dahm cautions, more work needs to be done. For example, the researchers still need to ensure the blimp can defend itself. Flying at 65,000 feet, the aircraft won’t be vulnerable to many enemy anti-aircraft systems but will be susceptible to “missiles and other threats,” Dahm said. “We need to assess if the technologies needed to make such systems possible are ready, and we need to learn how to effectively integrate those technologies into practical systems,” he said.
Right now, blimps with cameras are tethered above bases in Iraq and Afghanistan to provide security. The blimp in development, though, won’t be like any the military has ever used, Dahm said.
“We’ve never put a radar this large into a blimp before, and we’ve never tried to keep a blimp aloft continuously for years at these altitudes,” he said. “So, while it is a blimp, what we are doing in this joint DARPA/Air Force effort really is something absolutely revolutionary.”