SURVEILLANCE
Persistent surveillance What is the next generation of surveillance for border security? By David Eldridge, Sales Director at Chess Dynamics
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n integral part of any border security operation is robust surveillance. Be that coastal or landbased, tracking objects or people and being able to identify the absence of the normal is crucial to protecting a border or any kind of critical infrastructure. Without effective detection and identification, steps to nullify threats cannot be successful, and any protection is compromised. New advancements are enabling forces to be more agile and obtain a richer understanding of the operational environment. So, what are they, and how might their deployment provide
30 | April 2022 | IN SECURITY
an advantage? Persistent surveillance As a fundamental part of the security picture, surveillance is an increasingly innovative and forward-thinking capability area, and next generation technologies are coming online rapidly. Increasingly, operators have moved to a ‘persistent surveillance’ model. Vital to any surveillance capability is its ability to perform 24 hours a day, seven days a week and deliver persistent surveillance at maximum resolution. A 24-hour operation, regardless of operating conditions, is crucial in a dynamic environment,
such as a border, where many objects need to be identified and classified. Through technological innovations and the development of new sensors, persistent surveillance can provide long range reconnaissance for the detection and identification of potential threats for the military, civil organisations, and high value assets. But how can surveillance truly be persistent? There is a clear trend toward more integrated intelligence systems that provide more useful data for the command centre, however key to this is the management of data generated from sensors. Improving
