On the flight deck of the HSV 2 Swift, U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Sinclair
Harris received instructions Friday on how to launch the 13-pound drone
that looks like a model airplane built by a teenager in the family
garage.
“Raise it when we’re ready,” a civilian operator told the commander of the U.S. 4th Fleet. “It’s a piece of cake.”
Harris
did as told, launching the Puma AE (all environment) — a waterproof,
unmanned aircraft — into the vast blue yonder of the Florida Straits to
track and provide real-time video of a go-fast boat in a mock drug
smuggling operation.
“So easy, even an admiral can do it,” Harris joked.
It was a
test to see if the relatively low-cost drone, which runs on battery
power, could be an alternative to manned aircraft such as the P-3 Orion,
which requires a crew of seven and guzzles fuel.
The Navy is
trying to get creative to continue its never-ending war on drugs during
these tough economic times, in which its budget has been further
squeezed by new mandatory cuts triggered by the recent federal
sequester.
In March, the Navy announced the budget cuts were
forcing it to stop the deployments of two of its frigates, the USS Gary
and the USS Thach, that were patrolling the Caribbean and eastern
Pacific for traffickers of drugs, people and guns.
“It’s the old saying attributed to Mr. [Winston] Churchill: ‘We’ve run out of money; it’s time to think,’ ” Harris said.
That’s
why the 321-foot Swift also was carrying an unusual sight for a ship — a
big white blimp that was moored next to the big X that marks the spot
for helicopter landings.
This TIF-25K Tethered Aerostat had no
markings on it because it was used for military operations in
Afghanistan. But with the draw down of missions in that war, the
military wants to find ways to repurpose the unmanned blimps that run on
helium.
“We’ve only been at sea once before, and that was on a
barge in one of the Great Lakes,” said Craig P. Laws, the U.S. Navy
program manager for Raven Inc., the blimp’s private manufacturer based
in South Dakota. “We used it for a scientific experiment, watching algae
grow with a university. Flying from the flight deck of a Navy ship is
new to us.”
While blimps and remote controlled airplanes have been
around for decades; never before have they been combined for this sort
of mission at sea. Part of the reason: the technology has greatly
advanced (also becoming smaller and lighter) for the cameras, sensors
and communication equipment they carry. “And obviously, necessity is the
mother of invention,” Harris said.
It’s still a work in progress,
but Harris is excited about the potential of the blimp and drone.
Vessels like the Swift can increase its small boat detection
capabilities from about five miles with its onboard radar, to 50 miles
or so when the blimp and its F50 radar is raised to its maximum height
of about 2,000 feet. The blimp also has a camera that can capture
footage up to 15 miles away for big vessels.
And, weather
permitting, the blimp can supply 24/7 monitoring. The P-3 must return
within 10 hours for refueling and change of crews. The downside: there’s
nobody armed in the blimp and drone that can force the smugglers to
stop.
The drones are sent out only after a suspicious vehicle has been
identified. “It gives a god’s-eye view,” said Craig Benson, director of
business development for California-based AeroVironment Inc., which
makes the Puma AE.
The Pumas can fly for about two hours and have
the ability to sneak up on smugglers because they are quiet and look
like birds, with a wingspan of nine feet. The hope is that its cameras
will be able to capture evidence of smugglers trying to throw cocaine or
marijuana overboard to avoid arrest and prosecution.
One Navy requirement of the Puma was for it to be able to land in salt water and float for four hours, Benson said.
That
requirement was put to the test when the Puma came in for a landing on
the flight deck Friday but sank quickly as it hit the exhaust gas
thermal created by the ship. The remote control operator turned the
plane sharply to the right to avoid hitting the large throng of media
watching the demonstration. Gasps were heard as it crashed into the sea.
Harris
shrugged. “The thing is going to float,” he said. And it did, retrieved
more than 15 minutes later by the ship’s small boat. Another Puma was
launched. Harris said he’d give the operator $1 if he landed it this
time in the middle of the big X. And the operator did.
While the
five- to seven-foot seas and winds of more than 20 knots forced the
Coast Guard to call off a boarding demonstration, Harris said he was
pleased at how the blimps radar and drone’s cameras tracked the Gotcha, a
previously confiscated go-fast boat from a drug bust that was
positioned offshore of Key West for Friday’s test.
The next step
is to test the blimp and drone operationally in the southwestern
Caribbean. This is being delayed a few days to “tweak some issues with
the radar,” Harris said. “We’ve got to wait for the techs to arrive.”
If
all goes well with the operational tests, Harris said the information
will be passed up to “Big Navy,” who will decide if the blimp and drone
will become part of its assets. The decision will be made in
consultation with other agencies, including the Key West-based Joint
Interagency Task Force South (JIATF), which oversees Operation Martillo
for the United States.
While many people see the war on drugs as a
losing battle, Harris and other defenders say the efforts are paying
off, particularly since the United States has partnered with Colombia,
France, Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and several other countries in
the joint Martillo mission.
Martillo is Spanish for hammer. Since
the operation began in January 2012, it has seized about 200 metric
tons of cocaine and 25,000 pounds of marijuana — a street value of
approximately $3 billion, as well as $3.5 million in drug money. More
than 340 suspected smugglers also have been detained, according to Lt.
Cmdr. Corey Barker, public affairs officer with the U.S. 4th Fleet.
While
the Puma was being tested Friday, word reached the crew of the Swift
that the Coast Guard was offloading at the Miami Beach base an estimated
$27 million worth of cocaine seized from a 68-foot fishing boat
cruising through the western Caribbean Sea — exactly where the Swift is
going next to conduct three weeks of operational testing of the blimp
and drone.
That seizure occurred April 18. Two days later, the
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine crew on a P-3 made an
even bigger bust after spotting a speed boat carrying more than 3,300
pounds of pure cocaine with a street value of about $242 million in open
waters off Panama.
The P-3 crew notified Panama, which sent three
of its law enforcement boats to capture what turned out to be Colombian
smugglers.
About 67 percent of all U.S.-involved drug busts in the Caribbean are now the result of multiple nations working together.
“That’s a big increase in what it used to be,” Harris said.
Harris
also hopes the blimp and drones may be less expensive alternatives for
countries in the partnership that can’t afford fixed-wing aircraft for
surveillance, detection and monitoring.
“I was just in Colombia talking about this very thing,” Harris said. “I showed them pictures on Facebook.”
No comments:
Post a Comment