Brig. Gen. Ed Wilson, commander of the 45th Space Wing announced last week that one unmanned and unarmed Guardian* UAS, operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection will soon be based at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Two or three more will likely arrive in coming months to patrol for illegal immigration or drug traffic.
Wilson was speaking to the Space Coast Tiger Bay Club in Viera about military and government operations in Brevard County. “They like the Cape because of the restricted air space,” he said, explaining the UAS can fly in and out without having to contend with small aircraft they would encounter at other airports. “If you had asked me four or five years ago if we would be flying UAS out of the Cape, I would have said no,” Wilson said.
The 35 participants at the dinner meeting of the Space Coast Tiger Bay Club wanted to know more about the base and the Eastern Range, which is a network of ground station that enables safety officers to track rocket and shuttle launches. The range includes remote stations in places such as Antigua in the Caribbean and Ascension Island in the mid-Atlantic Ocean.
*The Guardian is a modified version of the MQ-9 Reaper (a 4.7 ton, 36 foot long aircraft with a 66 foot wingspan that looks like the MQ-1 Predator). It is equipped with satellite communications, a maritime radar, day/night video camera and electronics that enable it to receive data from the Automated Identification System (AIS) search-and-rescue transponder all seagoing ships of more than 300 gross tons are to carry.
The maritime variant, distinguished by a belly-mounted APS-134 SeaVue surveillance radar will eventually support joint counter-narcotics operations against drug-running “fast boats” and difficult-to-detect semi-submersible craft. The radar provides inverse synthetic aperture and synthetic aperture imaging as well as weather and target detection.
The Guardian will also be particularly useful for search and rescue missions. The UAV’s night camera detects differences in heat and can locate people adrift at sea. The endurance of Guardian is 30 hours, another valuable characteristic during search and rescue operations.