Dominique Ammann, specialist area Command and Control Systems, competence sector Command and Control + Reconnaissance Systems

Cluster Surveillance

The term surveillance means the targeted observation and information collection of objects, persons and items. The cluster Surveillance generally deals with the procurement of systems which are not used for intelligence purposes.

Based on its many years of experience, the specialist area Command and Control Systems is able to precisely analyse the market when new needs arise, to provide advice when the requirements are drawn up and to propose solutions which optimally cover the needs of customers. Amongst other things, the cluster Surveillance is very familiar with surveillance systems for mobile object protection as well as for noise monitoring. Although these systems are both used for surveillance, they differ greatly in the way they function and in the manner in which they deal with the information obtained.

Surveillance system for mobile object protection

The surveillance system for mobile object protection offers professional protection with minimum staff requirements and enables users to carry out temporary operations with maximum security standards. A variety of different active and passive sensors and cameras are used for this purpose in order to detect intruders and to be able to take appropriate countermeasures in real time. After use, the collected data is either no longer required at all or only in exceptional cases. The surveillance system for mobile object protection is designed such that deployments can be monitored, regardless of their size, the geographical location or the meteorological conditions. The mobile system can thus be scaled in the perimeter size, depending on the protected object. If a sensor becomes unusable due to heavy snowfall in winter, it can be substituted with a different sensor type without any problems.

We will present more information on the surveillance system for mobile object protection in one of our next articles.

Aircraft noise surveillance

According to the Noise Abatement Ordinance, every operator of an airfield – whether civilian or military – is obliged to determine the noise emissions caused. The DDPS measures the noise emissions caused by fighter jets and helicopters using the Airport Noise Monitoring System. However, high sound levels are often recorded which come from tractors and loud cars, for example, and not from aircraft. In order to draw conclusions about the noise pollution generated by the daily flight operations, the sound levels measured are correlated with the associated radar data. It can thus be determined whether the noise is caused by military aircraft or not. This data has little relevance for operations, but is used to present flight operations in retrospect to the civilian authorities and, not least, to the general public.

We will present more information on the aircraft noise surveillance system in our next but one article.