By Dean Murray via SWNS
The U.S. will stop the next 9/11 with AI cameras and laser beams, the Department of Defense announced Monday, Nov. 25.
A new AI camera system quickly identifies unauthorized aircraft approaching restricted areas and fires off a warning laser beam.
Washington, D.C.’s National Capital Region (NCR) – location of the White House, Capitol and Supreme Court – has begun the roll-out of the system.
It seeks to prevent the horrors of September 11, 2001, which saw a hijacked airliner hit the Pentagon, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., while a second passenger plane was prevented from a likely attack on either the White House or Capitol Building by the bravery of the passengers and crew.
The system allows operators to shoot an eye-safe laser at an object to measure its altitude and distance. There are also machine-learning elements to the system, such as an enhanced auto-tracking feature that has various locking modes.
The cameras also integrate a visual warning system, which is a laser that can illuminate the cockpit of an aircraft, described as being “sparkled at”.
The new lasers are used on aircraft that aren’t following an assigned flight plan and aren’t in radio contact or compliant with the Federal Aviation Administration‘s special flight rules.
Without the new technology, military aircraft would have to be deployed to investigate — which the DOD calls “a much more costly alternative”.
Air Force Master Sgt. (MSgt) Kendrick Wilburn, of the Joint Air Defense Operations Center, said: “Non-compliant aircraft are aware that, when they see the red-green laser, they need to turn to a heading away from the center of the flight restricted zone, or SFRA, as soon as possible and immediately contact the FAA to try to figure out why they’re being sparkled at. There are times that I’ve used it … and (violators) are responsive to it.”
He continues: “The system itself tries to identify what it believes the target to be, and then the operator can assess whether to override it or fine-tune it.”
MSgt. Wilburn says the more the AI tracking feature is used, the better it will perform.
He said: “The camera itself is amazing. We were able to acquire small targets such as a bird flying all kinds of patterns. It locked onto it and held that lock. With the legacies (cameras), you’d have a harder time getting the system to do that.”
Made by small tech company Teleidoscope, the cameras are replacing a system that was installed in 2002, which had replaced the initial cameras installed after 9/11.
Two of the new cameras have been installed and are operational. The team is working to install seven new cameras a year going forward.
The DOD said in a statement: “The new, artificial intelligence-based visual recognition and identification system is spread throughout the NCR and offers an exponential increase in capability compared to the old system.”
Known as the Enhanced Regional Situational Awareness system, the ERSA system is closely monitored by the Eastern Air Defense Sector in Rome, New York.
