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Note : A : Balloon (Video Encryted 802.11G)
C : Boat (Video Encrypted Radio)
E : Nokia (Streaming Video , Video , SMS/MMS) B : Plane (UAV , UVideo , Wireless)
D : Radio line
The North of Thailand can be a dangerous place. The dense border jungles harbor robber barons, drug
factories and rebel armies. The area is as lawless as it is wild. It’s the job of the Thai Army and Air force to
enforce safety and security across this vast area, a job that’s now made easier by combining the age-old
craft of soldiering with the latest in 21st century technology.
It’s early morning in the countryside north of Chiang Mai. Mist still clings to the jungle-covered
mountainsides and sleepy soldiers stand around drinking the first coffees of a long day. Yellow and blue
microwave dishes surround the encampment, desks are littered with laptops and cabling, the talk is of
surveillance, interdiction, and jungle combat. These men are doing their best to tackle a serious problem,
a problem faced by every country in the world, drugs.
The Golden Triangle region of Southeast Asia, the border regions of Thailand, Laos, Burma, and China, is
second only to Afghanistan as a producer and refiner of opium and heroin. The area is also one of the
world’s largest producers of Ya Baa, methamphetamine, crazy medicine in Thai slang.
Like the operation itself the equipment being tested is a combination of Thai and American expertise.
Wireless links, balloons, speedboats, cameras, microphones, environmental sensors and humans
linked together by AKCP’s cutting-edge sensorProbe8Linux (SP8L).
The sensorProbe8Linux, a next-generation environmental and security monitoring system, sits at the heart
of a surveillance and interception grid that stretches from the jungles of the Golden Triangle to deep-space
satellite networks and down to command-and-control centers of Bangkok.
Wireless sensors from Crossbow Technology monitor ground and sky. These small battery-powered
devices, Processor/Radio boards, are known as Motes designed for wireless embedded sensor networks.
Morning Briefing Before breakfast there’s a final briefing from Jim Ehlert, Research Associate in the
Information Sciences Department of the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, a prestigious
university with students from all branches of the U.S. defense community as well as from the Coast Guard,
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the services of more than 25 allied nations. He
introduces some of the people behind today's exercise, including Ivan Cardenas, from Kestrel Technology
Group based in Sugarland, Texas, who provided the incredible full-color night vision scopes and John "JP"
Pierson, NPS's networking guru who is a member of the New Innovation and Technology Center whose
mission is to introduce cutting-edge exciting technologies to NPS like the AKCP SP8L.
After breakfast all systems are given a final check. Software and hardware integrity are verified, cameras
and sensors are tested and last minute adjustments are made to the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
Commander Paul Kling, a US Navy jet pilot and expert in UAV operations, talks about the advantages of
UAVs for this type of work,. "UAVs have three major advantages, the Three D's. (1) Dull: ideal for long
duration, boring missions. Machines don't get bored. (2) Dirty: UAVs can work in environments not suitable
for humans (e.g., Nuclear, biological, and chemical environments. (3) Dangerous: better to lose an
unmanned aircraft than to lose a pilot and a manned aircraft,"
Mesh Antenna
The survey team reports back. They've been out all night searching for the enemy. They're equipped with
the latest generation of full-color night vision devices. They've located agents of a known drug-producing
organization near the border, the United Wa State Army. There are three of them, coming down-river in
long-tail boats. They're all armed, some wearing paramilitary uniforms. It’s time to move out. Command-
and-control swing into action.
Helicopter UAV
Seated at their consoles at the Tactical Operations Center or TOC., US and Thai commanders have full
“situational awareness” of the operation as provided by their high tech systems.. As patrols head for the
jungle, each soldier is linked back to the command center, updating and being updated as he hunts the
drug runners. The airborne devices are launched, mini-helicopters, and balloons carrying surveillance and
sensor clusters.
Balloon mounted WiFi and Video Cam
C : Boat (Video Encrypted Radio)
E : Nokia (Streaming Video , Video , SMS/MMS) B : Plane (UAV , UVideo , Wireless)
D : Radio line
The North of Thailand can be a dangerous place. The dense border jungles harbor robber barons, drug
factories and rebel armies. The area is as lawless as it is wild. It’s the job of the Thai Army and Air force to
enforce safety and security across this vast area, a job that’s now made easier by combining the age-old
craft of soldiering with the latest in 21st century technology.
It’s early morning in the countryside north of Chiang Mai. Mist still clings to the jungle-covered
mountainsides and sleepy soldiers stand around drinking the first coffees of a long day. Yellow and blue
microwave dishes surround the encampment, desks are littered with laptops and cabling, the talk is of
surveillance, interdiction, and jungle combat. These men are doing their best to tackle a serious problem,
a problem faced by every country in the world, drugs.
The Golden Triangle region of Southeast Asia, the border regions of Thailand, Laos, Burma, and China, is
second only to Afghanistan as a producer and refiner of opium and heroin. The area is also one of the
world’s largest producers of Ya Baa, methamphetamine, crazy medicine in Thai slang.
Like the operation itself the equipment being tested is a combination of Thai and American expertise.
Wireless links, balloons, speedboats, cameras, microphones, environmental sensors and humans
linked together by AKCP’s cutting-edge sensorProbe8Linux (SP8L).
The sensorProbe8Linux, a next-generation environmental and security monitoring system, sits at the heart
of a surveillance and interception grid that stretches from the jungles of the Golden Triangle to deep-space
satellite networks and down to command-and-control centers of Bangkok.
Wireless sensors from Crossbow Technology monitor ground and sky. These small battery-powered
devices, Processor/Radio boards, are known as Motes designed for wireless embedded sensor networks.
Morning Briefing Before breakfast there’s a final briefing from Jim Ehlert, Research Associate in the
Information Sciences Department of the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, a prestigious
university with students from all branches of the U.S. defense community as well as from the Coast Guard,
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the services of more than 25 allied nations. He
introduces some of the people behind today's exercise, including Ivan Cardenas, from Kestrel Technology
Group based in Sugarland, Texas, who provided the incredible full-color night vision scopes and John "JP"
Pierson, NPS's networking guru who is a member of the New Innovation and Technology Center whose
mission is to introduce cutting-edge exciting technologies to NPS like the AKCP SP8L.
After breakfast all systems are given a final check. Software and hardware integrity are verified, cameras
and sensors are tested and last minute adjustments are made to the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
Commander Paul Kling, a US Navy jet pilot and expert in UAV operations, talks about the advantages of
UAVs for this type of work,. "UAVs have three major advantages, the Three D's. (1) Dull: ideal for long
duration, boring missions. Machines don't get bored. (2) Dirty: UAVs can work in environments not suitable
for humans (e.g., Nuclear, biological, and chemical environments. (3) Dangerous: better to lose an
unmanned aircraft than to lose a pilot and a manned aircraft,"
Mesh Antenna
The survey team reports back. They've been out all night searching for the enemy. They're equipped with
the latest generation of full-color night vision devices. They've located agents of a known drug-producing
organization near the border, the United Wa State Army. There are three of them, coming down-river in
long-tail boats. They're all armed, some wearing paramilitary uniforms. It’s time to move out. Command-
and-control swing into action.
Helicopter UAV
Seated at their consoles at the Tactical Operations Center or TOC., US and Thai commanders have full
“situational awareness” of the operation as provided by their high tech systems.. As patrols head for the
jungle, each soldier is linked back to the command center, updating and being updated as he hunts the
drug runners. The airborne devices are launched, mini-helicopters, and balloons carrying surveillance and
sensor clusters.
Balloon mounted WiFi and Video Cam
