Security technologies should be networked, Pentagon says.

• Author: Tiron, Roxana

The Defense Department wants to stop buying stand-alone security and force-protection technologies and, instead, acquire systems that are networked and interoperable, officials said.

Much of the technology available today offers "point solutions for specific applications," said Lt. Col. Eugene Stockel, the product manager for the Army's physical security equipment office.

The Defense Department, however, gradually wants to move away from those point solutions and buy technologies that organize and network disparate devices into a "system that provides overall capabilities across the full dimension of threats--from explosive protection, to chemical and biological [detection] and intrusive detection," he told National Defense during a technology expo in Quantico, Va.

"It's like saying 'I [don't just] want the automobile engine, [I want] the whole automobile.' That is where we are headed," Stockel explained.

In the protection of facilities, for example, it is not enough to be able to determine the presence of an intruder. It is also important to figure out, beforehand, if the enemy is carrying any weapons or explosives, Stockel said.

On the battlefield, force protection systems are robust for front-line troops, but the level of protection is much lower for support and logistics personnel. That is an area, he added, where networked systems can help improve the protection of a widely dispersed force in a hostile environment.

The Tactical Automated Security System, or TASS, is an example of the kind of integration the Defense Department increasingly favors. The Air Force began developing this system in response to the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers barracks in Saudi Arabia.

TASS is an integrated electronic security system, which can be tailored for a variety of semi-permanent, portable and covert applications. The system receives, processes, reports and graphically displays information about potential threats.

A follow-on to TASS, called ETASS expands the system's capabilities for area surveillance. Using a variety of sensors, security personnel can see farther, detect and identify threats outside of the physical perimeter, creating a "virtual fence."

In a demonstration of ETASS at the Quantico Marine Base, Va., an infrared beam, part of the virtual fence, was tripped as a person walked through it. A blinking red dot appeared on a map screen, showing where the alarm had been tripped.

A ground-based radar tracked the movement of the approaching person. The location was sent directly to a thermal imager, which immediately rotated and focused on the perpetrator. At the same time, a remotely operated weapon system was targeted to the location.

All this information is displayed instantly to an operator on a...