FLIR – DEVELOPING SYSTEMS INTEGRATION AND BORDER PROTECTION CAPABILITIES
By Julian Nettlefold
BATTLESPACE met up with David Smith, Vice President of Business Development Integrated Systems, FLIR Integrated Systems, based in Baltimore and Atlanta, USA.
“To meet our customers demanding security requirements, FLIR develops a focused understanding with the customer to develop integrated systems tailor-made for these requirements using both our own detection and security sensors, and when required other Third party systems. We will provide a fully integrated system with open architecture which allows plug-and-play of additional systems.” David Smith said.
Underlying this capability, FLIR Systems Inc. showed off its considerable Systems Integration capability at AUSA National in October 2012. The growth of this capability was mirrored in the latest FLIR financials that show a growth of 42% in this area. (See: BUSINEES NEWS: ‘FLIR Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLIR) announced financial results.’) FLIR showed systems provided for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and a new system Kraken, which has been recently deployed to Afghanistan.
“The acquisition of ICx brought new radar and detection sensor technology into FLIR’s product range. We have leveraged this technology to develop a new range of systems combining radar with existing thermal cameras, tied together with CommandSpace Cameleon Command and Control (C2) Software. We recently completed a force protection UOR with General Dynamics UK as Prime for the UK MoD. In addition, we won an order from Schipol Airport for perimeter surveillance using our radars.”
Customs and Border Protection
In December of 2010 FLIR Systems, Inc. was awarded a contract from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) valued at up to $101.9 million, for the procurement of Mobile Surveillance Capabilities (MSC) systems. Developed for the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), FLIR’s Mobile Surveillance Capability (MSC) was developed as a follow on to CBP’s Mobile Surveillance System (MSS) program, originally awarded to FLIR in 2005.
The five year, firm fixed price contract includes a $26 million funded base year with four option periods and calls for integrated mobile surveillance and detection systems made to operate day and night in rugged areas of the U.S. southern border. FLIR’s TacFLIR 380 ultra-long range thermal imaging camera will be included on the vehicle-mounted surveillance towers, the vehicle in question is the Ford F-450 as demonstrated on the FLIR Booth. It is expected that work under this contract will be performed primarily out of FLIR’s facilities in Alpharetta, GA, and Wilsonville, OR. Deliveries are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2013.
The surveillance system is loaded onto the flatbed truck with a fork lift. Other vehicle types are being studied such as NAVISTAR and Mercedes-Benz UNIMOG. The 20ft mast is lowered for transport and quickly deployed when the location is reached.
Following the successful acceptance of the system, FLIR is now actively marketing the system around the world and won its first export contract to a Middle East customer in December 2012 for a number of systems. FLIR is building two demonstrator systems on the Ford F-450 for demonstrations overseas, particularly in the Middle East, one will be exhibited at IDEX with a FLIR long-range radar and a TacFLIR 380 camera.
A vehicle-based, long-range surveillance system, MSC is designed to detect, identify and track intruders along the US border. Soldier/agent-simple deployment of high-definition sensors, state-of-the-art radars and C2 software provides a “one-button to mission-ready” capability in less than 8-minutes.
A TacFLIR 380-HD electro-optic/infrared sensor, one ground surveillance radar and FLIR’s CommandSpace® Adaptive C2 software allows for continuous tracking of all targets in the detecti