How surveillance technology is evolving and helping with defence
In the 1998 movie Enemy of the State Will Smith portrays a lawyer who, unbeknownst to him, is carrying critical evidence of the murder of a senior politician. Cue action thriller mayhem as Smith’s character goes on the run against an unseen foe, reluctantly aided by Gene Hackman’s ex-government surveillance expert. The film was generally well received but was seen as yet-another-Hollywood-action-thriller, and as a result unremarkable.
However in one important aspect it was different. One of the first mainstream movies to highlight and focus on high-level surveillance, it demonstrated how widespread it was/is, and just how sophisticated the technology had become. Watched almost twenty-four years later, the tech on display seems pretty archaic now (this being in an era before 4/5G and superfast Broadband), but still manages to give the impression we are being watched. Constantly.
As for today, it’s estimated our image is captured by security cameras over 240 times per day (this is assuming you are out and about and in the US; in the UK it’s about the same if you are in London, around 180 for the rest of the country)*. So far so slightly unnerving. However surveillance isn’t just about CCTV; in fact the vast majority of investment in it comes from the Defence and Security Services sectors, of which a tiny percentage is CCTV / security camera related.
The best example of this is the evolution of drone technology (as covered in our blog ‘Droning On’ from 2020 which you can find here: Droning On – Icemart ). It has massively shifted the way in which global governments use them to perform many different functions. The era of the static camera may still remain but the ability to capture mission-critical live shots / video footage is the future, and Defence / Security departments the world over have poured $billions into development of the technology.
When we think of drones we tend to think of the small, four-propellor type buzzing around parks etc but the tech is used across a wide range of applications including large Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) which can resemble small aircraft. The same technological approach can be found in remote-controlled weaponry, bomb & IED disposal, traffic monitoring, large scale ordnance surveying, satellite development and deployment and a host of other applications. There are challenges in deploying such tech across multiple disciplines though. The conditions in which the hardware are used varies massively, from desert regions causing issues with sand and / or wind, to cold tundra areas where there are extremely low temperatures and ice becomes the enemy.
It’s often the case however that during the design process of these highly technological pieces of equipment this element gets less attention than it should; protection of the kit is not given the priority it deserves, and can in certain situations lead to malfunction and/or failure.
Help could be at hand though, via an exciting new development in the area of specialist protective coatings. An Innovate UK funded project by the name of ICELIP (brand name: Icemart®) are developing a novel passive ice-repellent coating that will prevent ice formation and adhesion without the need for active ice-management. As part of this project the consortium behind Icemart® are developing a bespoke Ice Wind Tunnel (IWT) model which delivers increased testing, higher efficiency & less down time. The approach allows for parallel or side by side testing, has a quick release system for leading edges and/or back plates, adapts the angle of attack and can be controlled from outside the tunnel itself. It is modular in design and is therefore not reliant on large structural elements that traditionally take time to move and replace.
While not revolutionary, the Icemart® IWT approach represents ‘new thinking’ which will be the bedrock of coating development in the coming years. For more information on the Icemart® project visit www.ice-mart.com.
*StudyFinds survey, Sept 2020