Posted on 08/04/2019 2:47:11 PM PDT by BeauBo
With Anduril, he’d port those innovations (from VR computer games) over into the defense sector, fusing affordable hardware and machine learning to create a border and battlefield surveillance suite that the federal government couldn’t resist...
Luckey leaned into the #MAGA-friendly ideology—donating big money to pro-Trump outfits, and meeting with Trump cabinet officials, all while his company quietly picks up military contracts and expands its work with border patrol...
In 2017, Luckey worked with Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) on cost estimates for legislation to push a virtual border wall into consideration... (On Thursday, the 41-year-old tech-savvy Congressman announced that he would not seek re-election “in order to pursue opportunities… to solve problems at the nexus between technology and national security.”)...
Anduril bills itself as an “AI product company” specializing in hardware and software for national defense. Its hallmark product, called Lattice, is a modular surveillance setup comprising drones, “Lattice Sensor Towers,” and software that autonomously identifies potential targets. As it demonstrated in two live pilot programs at the U.S. Southern border last year, the system can detect a human presence and push alerts to Customs and Border Protection agents in real time...
The agency recently bought 18 additional Anduril-made towers and plans to deploy them later this year. That installation is not part of a pilot program...
Beyond its border-watching sentry towers, Anduril also makes its own heli-drone, a sort of miniaturized helicopter that can stay airborne for long periods. Those drones, known as Lattice Ghosts, are capable of stealth flight and flying in formation over large swaths of land or sea for anything from “anti-cartel operations to stealth observation.”... the company sealed the deal on a $13.5 million contract with the Marine Corps to secure bases in Japan, Arizona, and Hawaii, surrounding each with a “virtual ‘digital fortress.”.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Border Patrol is getting these portable systems (18) to deploy in Texas. They can be moved overnight to a new location, like an ambush.
These systems could roll out very quickly, to cover a lot of ground.
Movable “virtual ‘digital walls’!
All this sounds excellent, but definitely NOT a substitute for histories oldest security measure: a wall...
Anduril also makes its own heli-drone, a sort of miniaturized helicopter
Follow the money.
Another history lesson!
I see it as am upgrade as layered security is the name of the game. Sure you can have a wall but if you look at how many people you may need to have stationed there this provides it and also can support infrared and other systems to help provide a further buffer space and capabilities.
“definitely NOT a substitute for histories oldest security measure: a wall”
A camera will do no good, when a caravan does a mass rush. We need both barrier and technology.
Border Patrol wants 1,100 total miles of sold barrier, but technology eyes on every mile of the border, including where we have the very best wall system. Technology is really an essential component of the wall system itself - sensors, alarms, cameras, lights, etc.
“layered security is the name of the game.”
With technology, we can see for miles into Mexico and the USA, creating huge areas for detection and tracking.
Barrier needs to be monitored too. Any obstacle not under observation, is vulnerable to counter-obstacle tactics.
“Can it pack Hellfire missiles”
These are strictly observation, rather than attack drones - far too light to pack Hellfires.
There is no real reason (legal or technical) why armed but unmanned aerial systems (likely remotely piloted by humans, like the large Predator drones that usually deliver Hellfires) could not be used to provide backup for Border Patrol officers, who have to engage armed traffickers in remote locations.
They could pack heavy machine guns, capable of stopping vehicles or multiple hostile personnel.
I have not heard of such systems, but it seems like a reasonable requirement.
One of the outposts named after Brian Terry. He needed this tech to back him up.
WeBuildTheWall groups could man the remote operations of these drone and IFT tower systems.
They could pack heavy machine guns, capable of stopping vehicles or multiple hostile personnel.
We don’t need a virtual wall. The AI claim is a marketing concept. At best he might have machine learning to recognize movements, patterns.
The best defence is a deterrent and the best deterrent is to neuter every illegal male starting at age 13 and then ship them back.....
A virtual wall can only be a backup to a physical wall. If we relied on a virtual wall, which Obama claimed we were building, it could be turned off at any time without the citizens knowing we no longer had the protection. They could even turn it off for a few minutes to create a blind spot for their drug shipments.
“A virtual wall can only be a backup to a physical wall.”
They are both needed.
Only a physical wall can control crowds using swarm tactics, or vehicles attempting to ram through.
18 foot bollards were effective against the caravan that tried to storm through the border into San Diego last year, in the places where it stood. Since then, the new primary barrier of 18 foot bollards has been completed - the entire 14 miles from the Ocean to the Mountain.
A second run of mighty 30 foot bollards (secondary barrier) is being constructed behind those, with the area in between turned into an clear open, stadium lit enforcement zone, saturated with sensors and alarms, under constant camera monitoring from their command center, with high speed patrol road from end to end.
That kind of multi-layered capability of both physical infrastructure and technology, is what DHS and CBP mean by the term “Wall System”.
Without technology monitoring though, plain barrier is subject to attack (tunneling, breaching, climbing).
Also, “full operational control of the border”, which DHS was charged to develop by Executive Order during the first week of the Trump Administration, is based on what they call “Border Calculus”.
The time available to intercept, is the time between detection and disappearance of intruders. Barriers slow down intruders, delaying their ability to “disappear” from surveillance or tracking. In urban areas, disappearing times are only minutes (barriers are essential), but in remote areas it takes days.
Technology can dramatically improve detection rates and time. In rural areas, it can also track them deep on the American side, to lengthen disappearing time. In very rural areas, the detection lead time and disappearing time are so long, that the delay from a barrier becomes insignificant.
Many rural areas also don’t provide vehicle passable terrain, or life support facilities for crowds, like the caravans. Those threats necessitate strong barrier in urban areas, and vehicle passable terrain.
When detailed analysis was conducted by the professionals, they settled on 1,100 miles of barrier out of the 1,954 miles of our Southern land border, and complete coverage of all 1,954 miles by constant technical monitoring.
The technical means themselves, are varied, and typically several are layered at any given spot. The long-running DHS technology programs include IFT, RVSS, and UGS. A line of Integrated Fixed Towers (IFT) is planned for the entire 370 miles of the Arizona border, with more than half now on contract, to be completed in the next year. They support unbroken Remote Video Surveillance Systems (RVSS) in their areas. They (IFT with RVSS) also are going into urban areas, and are already live in San Diego. Additionally, Unattended Ground Sensors (UGS) may be deployed in a systematic fashion, as needed, and on a mobile or even random basis. They can be of many types, to include include seismic, passive infrared, acoustic, contact closure and magnetic.
There are other types of sensors and alarm systems being deployed, such as radar or LIDAR, to detect small drug drones, or linear detection systems that detect any footfall crossing the line, and can distinguish a human from a deer.
The more layers of systems that are in place, the greater the security, and the harder it is for bad actors (even those in Government) to disable them all, and the more people who will be aware if they do.
The plan for full operational control of the Southern border (5 years, $25 billion dollars, 1,100 miles of barrier, thousands more full time positions and several technology programs), once in place, could then be expanded much more quickly and cheaply with future capabilities. New sensors could be strapped on the existing towers, plugged into existing power, and connected to existing communications into existing command centers. New robots could be unleashed to patrol or respond on existing roads.
The Trump plan takes care of all the long lead time, high cost work, and is designed to address the broad mix of current threats.
“We don’t need a virtual wall.”
We do.
We need strong physical barrier to deter most individuals, slow down the determined few long enough to capture them, stop crowds (caravans) from rushing across, and stop vehicles from ramming through.
But we need constant technical monitoring (virtual wall) to protect the barrier itself from people trying to tunnel under, climb over with ladders and ropes, or breach through with saws and torches.
We also need a virtual wall of technology to detect intruders earlier, track them longer, and provide responding officers with an accurate picture of them (is that alarm a pregnant lady, or 12 narcos with rifles?).
Infrastructure (walls, road, lights), technology and people are all essential components to control the border.
The “virtual wall” technology parts are usually the least expensive force multipliers of the whole effort.
Your point is absolutely true though, in that we can’t have a virtual wall INSTEAD of a real effective physical barrier.
bbb
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