Border Protector Michael J. Fisher - KMI Media Group

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get slow enough in a high endurance mission or it has great dash speeds to get to an area to intercept and aircraft that’s coming to the United States with dope on it.” Of those 14 OAM P-3s, there are two types: the Lockheed Orion P-3B Airborne Early Warning (AEW) and the Lockheed Orion P-3 Long Range Tracker (LRT). OAM currently operates eight AEWs and six LRTs. As part of the counter drug strategy, P-3s track drugs from the source zone, through the transit zone and all the way to the arrival zone. The source zone would be somewhere in South America where most of the coca is grown and produced. The transit zone is the surrounding body of water, and then coming up to the southwest border, southeastern border and the Gulf of Mexico is the arrival zone. Loads of dope are large in the source zone and then get broken up into smaller and smaller loads as they go through the transit zone and even smaller in the arrival zone, all the way down to street deal-size amounts, said Eckhardt. “That’s the theory, get the large loads as much as you can,” he added. “That’s the first part of defense in-depth. And then we have medium range aircraft like the Dash 8 and the Super King Air Multi-Enforcement Aircraft, and they get the next wave coming into the arrival zone. So that way, by the time the <strong>Border</strong> Patrol is on the border, the FBI, DEA and all those involved with counter-drugs work in the United States, there’s less dope for them to deal with.” onBoaRD teCHnology AEW Detection and Monitoring aircraft are the only dedicated law enforcement AEW aircraft in the world. They were developed to provide wide area search, increased command control, and communications capabilities. The LRT is designed to intercept and track airborne smuggling threats. LRT aircraft often fly in tandem with the AEW. Used in this manner, the AEW detects and tracks multiple targets and the accompanying LRT intercepts, identifies and tracks those suspect targets. That was the case until the creation of SeaVue Radar, a long-range maritime search radar, a couple of years ago. Since the integration of SeaVue, they can now conduct operations with just one aircraft. “Back in the day before SeaVue was invented, we used to go out in what’s called a ‘double eagle’ package; this is why [CBP] was so good at looking for and finding dope,” said Eckhardt. “The AEW and the LRT would take off together. The AEW would go to the patrol boxes up high and point out all of the radar targets for the LRT, which would stay low. The AEW would give 22 | BCD 1.1 a radar vector to the LRT and the LRT would stay low and visually identify all the contacts. When SeaVue came out, we were able to split the double eagle package. What we did was put the electro optics [EO] on the AEW so that way it can go out and find contacts and visually identify them themselves. So now we can cover much more area than we could with the double eagle package for a cheaper price. Getting the taxpayers some value there.” The AEW is equipped with an APS-145 radar, not the SeaVue Radar, which is the same one used on the Navy’s E-2 Hawkeye. While flying, the AEW can cover an area the size of Pennsylvania with one sweep of its radar. “So where the Navy tuned it for the battle group scenario looking for ships and cruise missiles inbound, the whole nine yards, our contractors tuned it for looking for small boats, maritime environments and low flying airplanes,” said Eckhardt. The LRT is equipped with two radars, an APG 66, which is an air-to-air search radar, and the SeaVue Radar. Armed with the tools and technology necessary to carry out its mission, the P-3 is a pilot favorite. “For every flight hour we fly, there’s 26 pounds of cocaine we put on the table,” said Eckhardt. “This airplane is [the] old reliable. It gets people out of station safely and gets us home safe. I love this airplane.” In addition to the extensive reach of the P-3’s radar, they are equipped with state-of-the-art communications systems including VHF, UHF, HF, SATCOM and iridium satellite phones to contact people via landlines. EO and infrared (IR) sensors play a part in the P-3’s roles as well, in that they can visually locate targets during daytime or nighttime operations. CuRRent anD futuRe upgRaDes OAM is in the process of “re-winging” all of the P-3s. The average age of OAM’s P-3s is 46 years old and coming to the end of service life. In 2005, OAM was finding cracks in the wing. Upgrades needed to take place, which is by far less expensive than purchasing brand new aircraft. Re-winging the aircraft will add a minimum of 15,000 flight hours or approximately 18-20 more years of service. “When you get to that situation [aircraft going beyond service life], you send them into what’s called heavy maintenance,” said Eckhardt. “They’ll bring them into a rework facility and they do non-destructive inspection on them, like X-ray and dyes and look for cracks and they’ll repair cracks. The airplane comes out with patches on the wings and they’ll get into the www.BCD-kmi.com
wing tank, put a doubler on where there was a crack. It’s an accepted way of doing aviation maintenance, but after a while, when you start to repair the repairs, it gets to be too much. There’s a point where you just can’t repair that wing any more. That’s the point we’re at.” Once the re-winging is completed, OAM is looking to standardize the fleet. This includes cockpit set up—not all planes have the same configuration—and EO/IR balls, also not standardized within the fleet. Once that is complete, Eckhardt said, the mission systems would have to be upgraded. “The mission system is the guts of the airplane, the computers that run and integrate the EOIR to radar contact, the ball and optics can zoom in on contacts,” he said. “It allows all of the different sensors to talk to each other. There’s a mission computer that keeps track of the position of the airplane on a map so you know where you are and plots targets on that map. A lot of things happen in the background on that airplane. So the mission system is probably going to need an update within the next few years. We always have to access new technology; there might be stuff on the horizon that might be perfect for us, we just don’t know yet.” O For more information, contact BCD Editor Brian O’Shea at briano@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.BCD-kmi.com. G4S International Training Inc. G4S ITI has been a quality training provider for over 20 years. All of our instructors are prior military or law enforcement professionals. We specialize in Driving, Firearms, CounterTerrorism, Protective Services, Combatives and Medical Courses. Go to www.g4siti.com to find out more about classes offered by G4S International Training Inc. or call us 804-785-6000. www.g4siti.com www.BCD-kmi.com BCD 1.1 | 23 EEOC/AA
Page 1 and 2: Border Threat Prevention and CBRNE
Page 3 and 4: Border & CBRNE Defense June 2012 Vo
Page 5 and 6: FRONTLINE NEWS The Transportation S
Page 7 and 8: Following the Madrid train bombing,
Page 9 and 10: www.BCD-kmi.com aDvanCes on multipl
Page 11 and 12: “We’ve made it portable and eas
Page 13 and 14: ProteCting our nation’s BorDers t
Page 15 and 16: or agency contract officer [CO]. If
Page 17 and 18: Mobile Radiation Monitoring Laborat
Page 19 and 20: Border Protector Q&A Maintaining Vi
Page 21 and 22: A: The P-3 right now, and even over
Page 23: By BRian o’sHea BCD eDitoR Counte
Page 27 and 28: The Department of Homeland Security
Page 29 and 30: The advertisers index is provided a
Page 31 and 32: nexT ISSuE COVER AND IN-DEPTH INTER

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