X-Ray Vision for G.I. Joe

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>


<http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/19719.html>

X-Ray Vision for G.I. Joe

   By Otis Port
   October 18, 2002

UWB systems that can probe deep underground are better known as
ground-penetrating radar (GPR). This technology has been used for
four decades to check for subsurface defects in runways and roads,
and find buried utility pipes and cables.

If U.S. or U.N. forces invade Iraq and occupy Baghdad, a few
hand-picked soldiers in special units may be equipped to make like
Superman and see through walls. Such powers could help them spot
potential ambushes before storming buildings. The key to this
wizardry is a multifaceted technology called ultrawideband, or UWB
for short.

Portable UWB radar units are being tested, or are already on the
market, that range from the size of a pudgy flashlight to a skinny
shoe box with a range of about 10 meters. More powerful, trunk-size
UWB radars can be packed aboard aircraft, tanks, or other vehicles.
Their main use in a war with Iraq would be to peer deep underground
and help find the bunkers and storehouses where Saddam Hussein could
be hiding Scud missiles, biochemical weapons, and equipment for
making nuclear bombs. While UWB would probably see only limited
service in Iraq, such systems could prove vital in future battles.

Whether used for radar or communications, the principle is the same.
A UWB system spouts a vast stream of ultrashort signals -- millions
of pulses every second and scattered across a wide swath of radio
bandwidth. Some bursts will be at the right frequency to slip
through, say, concrete and brick, while others will penetrate only
wood. Enough pulses bounce back from the different materials to
construct an image.

Ground Probe

Point the SoldierVision unit from Time Domain at a wall, for example,
"and what you see is an outline of the room behind, with people
showing up as yellow blobs," explains Ralph Petroff, CEO of the
Huntsville (Ala.) UWB pioneer. The system is designed to focus on
"large bags of salty water, which is what humans are," he adds. But
metallic objects, such as guns, show up as blue. So a yellow blob
with a blue streak "could be cause for concern," says Petroff. (For
more on the Pentagon's high-tech tools, see BW, 10/21/02, "Storming
the Streets of Baghdad.")

In early October, Time Domain delivered its first four SoldierVision
units to a U.S. Army testing lab, then unveiled a civilian
counterpart, called RadarVision, at a meeting of police chiefs in
Minneapolis. Petroff believes the civilian system will also aid
firefighters searching for people in a burning building.
Multispectral Solutions in Germantown, Md., has a similar device.

UWB systems that can probe deep underground are better known as
ground-penetrating radar (GPR). This technology has been used for
four decades to check for subsurface defects in runways and roads,
and find buried utility pipes and cables. In the 1990s, U.N.
inspectors in Iraq had a GPR system mounted in a helicopter, enabling
them to see as deep as 10 meters into dry soil. But the Iraqis told
the inspectors where and when it could fly, "so the only stuff we
found was what they wanted us to find," says one former U.N.
inspector.

Dud Scud

To do a more thorough job, "we need to cover a lot more ground," says
Roger Vickers, president of Environmental Mapping Canada in
Abbottsford, B.C., who, until last year, had spent the previous 25
years as a GPR researcher at SRI International in Silicon Valley.
Vickers figures he has just the thing for the job: a new GPR system
installed on a Beechcraft King Air propjet.

In addition to looking straight down, his new system also scans to
the sides, "so you can cover hundreds of square kilometers in single
flight." The sideways scans can't penetrate quite as deep, but
Vickers says it can still spot objects the size of oil drums at
depths of up about 10 feet -- "and bigger targets like Scud missiles
at deeper depths."

Just how far underground it can discern a Scud will soon be put to
the test. Six months ago, when it was clear that the Iraq situation
was heating up, Vickers commissioned welding students at Canada's
University College of the Fraser Valley to building a dummy missile.
The 36-foot-long replica will be buried at various depths between
runways at the Abbottsford airport where the King Air is based.

Mammoth Find

Geophysical Survey Systems in North Salem, N.H., also has a new GPR
system that "sweeps" a wide path -- but from a vehicle. Because it's
close to the ground, it can map underground features at up to 30
meters while cruising at 45 mph. GSSI has been selling gear to the
military since 1984 -- and also to industry and archeologists, who
have used GPR to discover a woolly mammoth in Siberia and ancient
structures swallowed by the sands of Egypt.

Given the new high-speed capabilities of mobile GPR units, the Army
wants to develop systems with horizontal transmitters. Put such gear
on a tank or armored personnel carrier, and it could be driven down
the street of an urban battlefield, searching for snipers and
strongholds inside buildings. Smaller UWB devices mounted on
breadbox-size robots or little drone airplanes could check hallways,
tunnels, and caves.

The Pentagon is also high on UWB radios. One big advantage is the
difficulties enemies will encounter trying to detect their signals,
which is why Navy SEALS and similar outfits love the technology.
Similarly, if a pilot gets shot down and broadcasts his position to a
rescue helicopter, it will be all but impossible for the enemy to
triangulate the location of a pilot using a UWB transmitter. To
ordinary radio scanners, the minuscule UWB pulses are like so much
noise. Moreover, even a UWB-based scanner wouldn't be able to make
sense of signals without knowing the precise nanosecond-by-nanosecond
frequency hops the transmitter is making.

Tracking Soldiers

In addition, says Petroff, UWB radios can handle huge amounts of
information. During summer exercises in 2001 at Fort Bliss, the Army
experimented with UWB local-area networks and achieved transmission
rates of 1.25 megabits per second (Mbps) with Time Domain's PulsOn
chips. The latest PulsOn design offers data rates of 40 Mbps, and
versions planned for 2005 call for speeds to jump to 1 gigabit per
cecond (Gbps). That should be enough to disseminate "situational
awareness" information to combatants as well as those in command
posts some distance removed from the actual fighting.

Time Doman is now working with General Electric (NYSE: GE) on an
indoor wireless network for tracking parts, products, and packaged
drugs in factories, warehouses, and hospitals. The system could be
adapted to track the movement of soldiers fighting in buildings,
since Time Domain has demonstrated how tiny UWB "tags" can follow
firefighters as they move through buildings with heavy smoke and
flames.

Today's familiar position-locator technology -- GPS -- can't handle
the job because signals are blocked by buildings. On the battlefield,
when a building has been won, UWB devices could be linked via a
network to establish perimeter security and detect intruders. This
security "bubble" could even extend through the walls to warn of
impending threats in adjacent buildings.

'Drop Everything'

Drawbacks? It adds yet more weight to the already heavy packs that
soldiers carry -- as much as 80 pounds in the case of larger units.
Since this so-called combat load can hamper a soldier's fighting
ability, the Pentagon is striving to reduce it. Colonel Barry Ford,
chief of staff of the Marine Warfighting Lab at Quantico, Va., says
he likes the idea of being able to see through walls, but he
complains that UWB systems are too bulky. "When you give them to
combat-loaded marines in the field, it's just not combat-efficient,"
he says.

Although UWB systems are not yet widely deployed, Petroff says "we
and every other UWB supplier would drop everything else and find some
way to fill the order" if the Pentagon wants UWB radios and radars
for an operation in the Mideast. Given the military's interest in
improving battle technology, this is one area to watch.

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/