19 Jul 04. AMS is a surveillance and systems integration company with the expertise and experience to meet the diverse requirements of Homeland Protection.
‘Homeland Protection is our business’, states Carlo Venturi – AMS CEO, ‘The new and uncertain world security environment requires the integration of data from a multitude of sources and the ability to provide real-time threat assessments and response options.’
Whether on land or at sea or in the air, AMS has sophisticated sensor and surveillance technologies. Sensors can be combined into common command and control architectural frameworks, allowing small discrete systems to be combined into larger systems, as the threats change, so the system can be tailored to meet the developing requirements of the Civil and Military response agencies.
For protection of special events or individual installations, AMS has worked in partnership with DRS to provide an Anti-terrorist Force Protection (ATFP) mobile radar and Electro-optical system for the protection of ports and facilities. This system includes a Command and Control capability that alerts the operator to potential threats, so that he can initiate the appropriate response.
For the low cost protection of whole coastlines, AMS continues to innovate by using High Frequency (HF) radar to provide over the horizon surveillance. This is just the first stage in a more sophisticated system of coastal surveillance and vessel traffic management (VTMS) such as the one developed by AMS for Italy.
Here a cost-effective network of sensors placed around the coast of Italy are integrated into a command and control system with regional and national control centres. This €500m programme addresses not just Vessel Management but provides essential elements of EEZ surveillance and therefore increased levels of security for the nation, which can be built upon in the future to meet developing requirements.
And at sea, on board the frigates of the Italian and British navies, AMS supplies combat managements system with open architectures to provide a broad and comprehensive view of operations, threat analyses and response options. Based on this experience, AMS has developed a range of modular combat system solutions (called NECSYS) which are scaleable and therefore available to meet every type of surface warship requirement, including OPV’s patrolling the EEZ.
Rapid threat assessment, scenario planning, and training are key to developing effective means of Homeland Protection. AMS has powerful synthetic environments based simulation systems which can include a mixture of real hardware and future concept systems. When analysed against the customer scenarios an assessment of overall system performance can help to develop the Response Force Operational Procedures and Doctrines. Involving the end-user in the Assessment loop before the system is totally deployed, allows an accurate assessment of the fielded operational effectiveness to be known in advance.
AMS understands surveillance, integration and command and control. It is now focussing its years of experience to ensure the safety and security of nations faced with the threat of conventional and asymmetric attack.