June 23, 2007
multi-sensor systems for U.S. border surveillance
FLIR Systems Inc. in Portland, Ore., won a $6 million contract from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency of the Department of Homeland Security for Ranger III multi-sensor systems for use along the southern U.S. border as upgrades to relatively old thermal imaging systems.
The Ranger multi-sensor system integrates a long-range midwave imaging system with a powerful daylight sensor, global positioning system, mapping software, and optional laser rangefinder.
The Ranger imagers can track vehicles from as far away as 12 miles through smoke, dust, and most obscurants, and allows for a programmable search pattern to reduce operator workload.
press release | Military & Aerospace Electronics
~$6 million will buy how many Ranger III Systems? Covering how many miles along the US's southern border?
(There are no small plans, only small people.)
Kinda looks like a robot jack in the box. Wearing a hat and stretching its 'neck' to take a peek with one creepy bloodshot eye and one squinty eye. I like its desert camouflage cape. Tres chic. That it's designed to bring gunships, jeeps and law enforcement officers is what we're learning to expect from odd looking boxes with lenses, isn't it?
What was the name of that movie in which an African or Australian Bushman finds a Coca-Cola bottle in the desert? An encounter with Ranger III would not be like that.