Sharing Military Technology?

[bcjack]

I sit and look at all of the technology the U. S. military has at its disposal, and I wonder why we can't share some of that technology for the benefit of public safety.

We all know there are satellites up there that can zoom in so tight, you can count the number of nose hairs on someone. Those same satellites can look through fog, and smoke to see what is going on IN REAL TIME!!!

With all of this technology, why couldn't we in public safety cultivate a relationship with the military and gain access to these technologies for the improvement of what we are charged with doing? Imagine the Operations Chief REAL-TIME scanning a wildland fire from the ICP, watching the progression of a fire and being able to direct the troops to the ever changing situation.

For our law enforcement brothers and sisters, imagine a high-level crime in progress and being able to watch the incident in REAL TIME.

How about some of the satellite based REAL-TIME camera feed systems they use for military missions? How about providing those cameras and very limited access to the satellites for all firefighters, allowing the commanders to watch and track their people while fighting fires, IN REAL TIME!! Wouldn't that be of some value for those brother and sister firefighters that go into burning buildings to do their job???

It seems so simple in my mind. We connect with the military and craft mutual aid type agreements for access to the technologies. They assign a liaison to the incident, and that liaison maintains absolute control over the satellite and we ask for the view we want, and they provide it.

Well???????? Why not???????????

[ParkFire]

You don't just steer a satellite around the sky with a joystick zooming in on whatever and whoever you want. It doesn't work that way. The bird has to be in the sky over your area and in a flight path/orbit that will enable it to see what you want to see.

Satellites are also horrendously expensive to launch and operate/maintain. There is no reason to use one when something cheaper would do the trick.

The military makes a lot of use of aerial platforms, particularly UAVs and aircraft such as the AWACS to make up for the shortcomings of satellites. Personally, I think ultra cheap UAVs are going to be the next hot thing and thats where you should focus your attention on.

Keep in mind that what happens in movies and books is often stretching the truth a mite...

[bcjack]

You don't just steer a satellite around the sky with a joystick zooming in on whatever and whoever you want. It doesn't work that way. The bird has to be in the sky over your area and in a flight path/orbit that will enable it to see what you want to see.

Satellites are also horrendously expensive to launch and operate/maintain. There is no reason to use one when something cheaper would do the trick.

The military makes a lot of use of aerial platforms, particularly UAVs and aircraft such as the AWACS to make up for the shortcomings of satellites. Personally, I think ultra cheap UAVs are going to be the next hot thing and thats where you should focus your attention on.

Keep in mind that what happens in movies and books is often stretching the truth a mite...

Thanks for the info. I just read an article (can't find it right now) about UAV's being introduced (Drones) for fire use.

[voyager9]

I sit and look at all of the technology the U. S. military has at its disposal, and I wonder why we can't share some of that technology for the benefit of public safety.

First: Cost. Most military technology is expensive to the point where even other countries (and our own!) can't afford it.

Second: Classification. A lot of the details of military technology are secret and aren't available for public use.

Now.. I think the fire service does see a lot of technology dribble down from the military.. Think Thermal Imaging cameras and the like. It just takes a long time for them to be affordable and widely adopted.

I think the next thing will be along these lines: Heartbeat Sensors