U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

National Institute of Justice

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Research Report

Department of Justice andDepartment of DefenseJoint TechnologyProgram: SecondAnniversary Report

Department of Justice

Department of Defense

Department of Justice andDepartment of Defense

Joint Technology Program:Second Anniversary Report

Prepared by the Joint Program Steering Group

John J. PennellaChairman

Peter L. NacciDeputy Chairman

February 1997

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

National Institute of JusticeJeremy Travis

Director

David BoydDirector, Office of Science and Technology

Opinions or points of view expressed in this document are thoseof the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official positionof the U.S. Department of Justice.

The National Institute of Justice is a component of the Office ofJustice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of JusticeAssistance, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Juvenile Justiceand Delinquency Prevention, and the Office for Victims of Crime.

NCJ 164268

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I n 1994 the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) entered into a cooperative agreement to develop technologies of value to both. Thisagreement, codified in a Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) and signed by the Deputy Secretary of Defense and theAttorney General, formalized and focused a longstanding ad hocrelationship. To manage this technology development programand to direct its day-to-day activities, the MOU established aJoint Program Steering Group (JPSG) that would represent bothdepartments and be staffed with members from several agencies.

Two years have passed since the MOU was signed, but this co-operative effort has already borne fruit. Improved personnel ar-mor and new methods for detecting concealed weapons arebeing demonstrated. As this joint effort begins to deliver itsproducts, DOD and DOJ, through their respective lead agen-cies—the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(DARPA) and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ)—have di-rected the JPSG to produce this anniversary report.

This report consists of three parts. Part I explains how this jointtechnology program originated and the need for a JPSG. Part IIfocuses on seven technology development areas included in theJPSG program and the anticipated payoffs. Part III draws con-clusions regarding program benefits.

Part I: The Partnership Between LawEnforcement and the Military

The boundaries separating the functions of the law enforcementand military communities are clearly defined in law. Themilitary’s function is to provide for the national defense, whileFederal, State, and local law enforcement agencies maintaindomestic tranquillity.

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Although performing different functions, law enforcement andthe military perform many of the same tasks. Both law enforce-ment and the military operate their own judicial, police, andprison systems. Within the limits set by law, civil law enforce-ment and the military communities work cooperatively. For ex-ample, in communities near large military installations, militarypolice routinely maintain offices in metropolitan police stations.The Federal Prison System incarcerates hundreds of the mili-tary’s more difficult prisoners. At the same time, the FederalPrison System receives special consideration from the militaryin the disposition of military properties made available whendomestic installations close or in locating prisons on active mili-tary installations. Often law enforcement and the military mayalso participate in the same missions. Such interagency effortsinclude waging the war against drugs, countering terrorism andespionage, and providing disaster relief.

Benefits of Shared TechnologyDOJ and DOD have a long history of sharing technology. AfterWorld War II and the Korean War, local and Federal law en-forcement agencies benefited from such technology as helicop-ters and handheld radios, whose development had been spurredto meet military needs. Additionally, over the years, manyState and local police agencies have received surplus militaryequipment.

However, this flow of technology has not been one way. Lawenforcement has also shared its technology with the military. Forexample, the current generation of “bulletproof” vests, em-ployed both by the law enforcement and military communities,evolved from the development of body armor using Kevlar,TM

which was sponsored by NIJ (then the National Institute of LawEnforcement and Criminal Justice of the Law Enforcement As-sistance Administration) in the late 1960s and early 1970s.When the U.S. Marine Corps deployed to Somalia in 1995 toassist in the withdrawal of U.N. forces, it did so with an arsenalof what are termed “less-than-lethal” weapons, including a“sticky foam” developed by NIJ. The foam works much likehuman flypaper and is used to limit the potential for injury tobystanders and damage to property.

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Benefits of Joint Technology DevelopmentThese ad hoc technology and equipment transfers are beneficialto both law enforcement and the military. However, greater ben-efits result when efforts involve joint technology development inpartnerships throughout the Government.

Cost Effectiveness. The benefits to be gained, in terms of dol-lars saved, is clear. For example, the recent collaboration of theNational Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), theU.S. Air Force, NASA, and the U.S. Navy in the development ofmeteorological satellites will result in future satellites that willperform multiple functions. The satellites will not only help pro-duce daily weather forecasts but also assist military and civilianpilots and military planners. Replacement satellites will lastlonger and will reduce the need for more satellites. This effortshould produce a saving in excess of $1 billion over the next 10years.

Long-Term Research. Combined technology developmentprojects involving the military and law enforcement havespanned decades. In the 1960s the Law Enforcement AssistanceAdministration sponsored joint technology developments in thearea of remote bomb detection. Other early joint projects in-cluded the development of riot control agents, night vision de-vices, and “nonlethal” bullets. More recently, the FederalBureau of Investigation (FBI) and DARPA have worked on anumber of projects, including the application of advanced com-puter technology to crime solving, while DEA and other lawenforcement agencies have collaborated with DARPA in devel-oping technologies to counter the flow of narcotics into thiscountry.

Joint Technology Improvement and the JPSG. Federal agen-cies frequently collaborate to develop technology. However, thedifferences in cultures, missions, and applications among agen-cies can make joint development and transition of technologychallenging. To make reasoned judgments about technologyoptions requires an understanding of these differences thatcomes only with experience. In a partnership between DOD andDOJ, the most effective way of ensuring that such experience

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was applied was to jointly staff a program steering group; hencethe establishment of the JPSG.

Perhaps the best single example of a technology area that hasbeen cooperatively advanced by the military and law enforce-ment communities is the development of body armor. Both lawenforcement and military personnel wear body armor. More andmore often, this includes the law enforcement officer and theordinary soldier, as well as special purpose units such as policeSpecial Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams and U.S. SpecialForces. Current body armor is heavy, movement impairing, andcostly, and it does not dissipate heat very well. Consequently,body armor design has had to strike a less-than-optimum com-promise between level of protection and area protected. As aresult, the standard issue “bulletproof” vests worn by most po-lice and soldiers offer limited protection, especially little if anyprotection against rifle bullets.

In the JPSG-managed body armor development program, jointlydeveloped technologies incorporate design preferences fromboth the military and law enforcement communities. One bodyarmor effort that the JPSG is managing is development of a“bulletproof” vest with titanium or ceramic inserts that does of-fer some rifle and bullet protection. Designed to be worn incon-spicuously as an undergarment, the vest causes minimalimpairment to its wearer’s freedom of movement. This “con-cealable” armor weighs around 8 pounds and affords handgunprotection over the entire area that it covers. Inserts positionedover the heart and spine offer rifle fire protection.

Technology Transfer. Joint development programs such as thebody armor program also ease technology transfer. New prod-ucts usually require modifications when transferred from oneagency to another. Such changes are due to differences in envi-ronment, operating procedures, and performance requirements.Perhaps the most commonly cited example of modification re-quirements is the military’s requirement for “ruggedization.”This includes, in certain circumstances, protecting electronicequipment against the effects of the electromagnetic pulse pro-duced when a nuclear weapon is detonated. Very few if any law

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enforcement organizations require equipment designed to suchspecifications.

Law Enforcement and Military Technology Convergence:Needed More Today Than EverThe post-Cold War era has seen a convergence in the technologyneeds of the law enforcement and military communities in morethan just law enforcement operations. Today the Nation’s morethan 3,000,000 civilian law enforcement officers and soldiers,sailors, marines, and airmen find themselves performing manyof the same tasks. The three facets to this convergence resultfrom the need to (1) limit force, (2) defend against commonthreats, and (3) participate in common missions.

Limiting Force. Increasingly, the military finds itself conduct-ing operations such as peacekeeping, in which it is confrontedby an absolute mandate to apply force discreetly and then to useonly the minimum amount of force necessary to accomplish aparticular mission. These are essentially the same rules underwhich law enforcement agencies operate. Like their counterpartsin the law enforcement community, military commanders findthat these constraints severely limit their options and thus toooften limit their effectiveness. On occasion, the severity of theseconstraints leaves commanders with the alternative of doingnothing or placing the lives of the involved personnel at risk.

A further consideration that affects how the military and lawenforcement apply force is the greater presence of members ofthe media or other civilians who are observing, if not recording,the situation. Even the lawful application of force can be misrep-resented to or misunderstood by the public. More than ever, thepolice and the military must be highly discreet when applyingforce.

Defending Against Common Threats. As more and more mili-tary technology finds its way into criminal hands, law officerstoday confront threats that have more and more military aspects.For example, narcotics traffickers and smugglers use bulletproofvests, electro-optic devices that enable them to see at night, andsemiautomatic and even automatic weapons. In addition, law

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enforcement agencies must be able to deal with the threat frominternational terrorism, from which the United States is nolonger immune—if it ever was.

The nature of criminals and their crimes has changed as well.Although the rate of victimization has declined over the pastdecade, there have been surges in rates of violent crimes, espe-cially those associated with youth.

Participating in Common Missions. The best examples of lawenforcement and military participation in common missions arethe “wars” being waged against narcotics and terrorism. Thisconvergence of missions was illustrated by President Clinton’snomination of the Commanding General of the U.S. SouthernCommand to the position of Director of the Office of NationalDrug Control Policy. The U.S. Southern Command, headquar-tered in Panama, plays a key role in the effort to stop the flow ofdrugs from South America into the United States.

At an overall level, these three shared needs suggest that theroles of traditional law enforcement and the military are chang-ing and that the tactics, technologies, and tools of use to onemay be of use to the other.

Interagency AgreementThe potential benefits of a joint development program becameclear to officials in DOD and DOJ, as well as to Congress, in1993. The overlap of technology needs had been noted by a se-nior working group (SWG) convened by DARPA in 1993 toassist in formulating a program to develop technologies to en-hance the effectiveness of U.S. forces engaged in OperationsOther Than War (OOTW). These kinds of operations involveproviding humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping, countering theflow of drugs into the United States, and countering terrorism.This initiative was prompted by events in Somalia and else-where. The SWG and DARPA noted many common technologyneeds between civilian law enforcement operations and OOTW.

Congress and senior officials in both DOJ and DOD movedDARPA and NIJ toward establishing a formal partnership agree-

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ment. In June 1993, the Attorney General sent a letter to DODand the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) suggesting collabora-tion on technology development. In July 1993, Congress initi-ated language directing the establishment of an interagencyworking group, which included DOJ and DOD, to look to thedevelopment of dual-use technologies. This was prompted bythe recognition of the effect of defense downsizing on the indus-trial base and the effort to reduce Federal expenditures and byapparent interest within the administration to “reinvent govern-ment” by eliminating unnecessary redundancies. In hearingsbefore the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommitteeon Research and Technology that year, the DOD Director ofDefense Research and Engineering endorsed establishing jointtechnology development with DOJ. Also at these hearings, keyNIJ and industry officials testified about the value such a part-nership might produce.

NIJ reorganized in 1994 by elevating its Division of Science andTechnology to full office status and establishing a Law Enforce-ment and Corrections Technology Advisory Council (LECTAC)consisting of 85 representatives from Federal, State and locallaw enforcement agencies. At that time, LECTAC identified lawenforcement technology needs for NIJ and noted that many ofthese needs were pertinent to the military.

Memorandum of Understanding. The clear benefits of thispartnership led to the execution of an MOU between DOJ andDOD on April 20, 1994. Highlighting the importance attached tothis MOU was its execution by the Attorney General and theDeputy Secretary of Defense and the presence of the Vice Presi-dent, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Director of the Of-fice of National Drug Control Policy at the signing ceremony.This MOU set in motion the development and enactment of thetechnology program described in Part II of this report.

The MOU calls for the establishment of an extendable 5-yearprogram in which a JPSG, jointly staffed by DOD and DOJ rep-resentatives, manages daily operations and a high-level inter-agency Senior Review Group sets policy. Members of the JPSGhave been drawn from DARPA, NIJ, the FBI, the Bureau ofPrisons, and the U.S. Army. The JPSG works at any point along

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the research, development, and acquisition (RDA) spectrum sothat it can support demonstrations of existing technology as wellas development of totally new and unique technologies.

On October 1, 1994, the JPSG was established at DARPA inArlington, Virginia. The Chairman, from DARPA, and DeputyChairman, from NIJ, co-manage the program. Congress appro-priated $37.5 million in Fiscal Year 1995 to support the MOU.Of this, $26 million was made available for JPSG-sponsoredprojects.

The execution of the MOU set in motion what would become animportant series of briefings and information exchanges betweenDARPA and NIJ. These sessions were used to define agencypriorities, capabilities, and department interest. During thesesessions, similarities in DOJ and DOD technology needs wereapparent. At the same time, many agency-specific requirementswere examined. This reaffirmed the view that the agencies needto collaborate in joint development of technology, rather than forone simply to develop the technology independently for directtransfer to the other.

JPSG Technology Plan. The Senior Review Group approvedthe technology plan submitted by the JPSG in March 1995, 6months after the JPSG was formed. The plan represented exten-sive research and coordination by the JPSG within the law en-forcement and military communities. Essentially, the JPSGexamined technology priorities submitted to it by both commu-nities, identified overlapping technology needs not being pur-sued, and formulated a plan to address them.

Part II: The JPSG Program

The JPSG program focuses on seven main areas of technologydevelopment.

Concealed Weapons DetectionConcealed weapons—principally handguns and stabbing andedged weapons—pose a major threat to military and law en-forcement personnel. Existing detection systems, mainly metal

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detectors, have limited ranges and high false-alarm rates; theyare also obtrusive and thus easily circumvented. Further, low-metal-content handguns and non-metallic stabbing and cuttingweapons make effective detection challenging.

NIJ Program. Recognizing this problem, NIJ initiated a pro-gram in January 1995 to develop better ways to detect concealedweapons. This program is pursuing three technology develop-ment approaches: (1) passive millimeter wave (MMW) sensor,(2) active low-frequency magnetic sensor, and (3) magnetom-eter. Underscoring the importance of this problem, the JPSG hasundertaken a program that complements this NIJ effort and thatis closely coordinated with it.

The JPSG Program. The JPSG intends to develop safe, afford-able and, inasmuch as possible, inconspicuous systems that candetect from more than 30 feet away weapons with little or nometal content as well as those made of metal. Initial efforts arefocusing on developing stationary devices, much like the metaldetectors found in airports. Such devices might be used to pro-tect courts and, in today’s environment, even schools. Develop-ment of smaller, handheld versions will also be explored.

In June 1995 the JPSG selected four approaches for develop-ment, based on the recommendations of a board of military andlaw enforcement users and technical experts. These technologyapproaches consisted of the following: (1) an x-ray sensor, (2) asensor system combining passive MMW and infrared (IR) cam-eras, (3) a sensor system combining ultrasound and radar sen-sors, and (4) a low-frequency magnetic sensor. The ultrasoundportion of the ultrasound-radar technology approach may lenditself to being carried by a soldier or police officer in a unitmuch the same size as a bullhorn.

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All of these technologiesproduce images. Figure 1shows a person with a 22-caliber “Saturday night spe-cial” (see arrow) concealedunder his clothes. The photo-graph was taken using one ofthe technologies that em-ploys low level x-rays. Theradiation exposure needed tomake this picture is equiva-lent to spending approxi-mately 5 minutes in the sun.Figure 2 was taken with anMMW camera. It shows aperson with two automaticpistols concealed under hisclothing—one metal and oneceramic (see arrows). Figure 3 was taken with an IR camera.Again, it shows a person with a concealed automatic pistol(see arrow).

The x-ray picture was taken with a system that will be demon-strated in two corrections facilities over a 6-month period. Thefirst facility had a system installed in May 1996. A suitable loca-tion for the second system is being sought.

Component-level demonstrations of theother technologies were completed by De-cember 1996. The results of these demon-strations are being evaluated. Additionalfunds will be sought to further developsuccessful technologies.

The JPSG program manager runs both NIJand JPSG programs. He is supported bythe NIJ National Law Enforcement andCorrections Technology Center(NLECTC)–Northeast, which acts as histechnical agent for both efforts, providingstaff and technical support. The NIJ andFigure 2

Figure 1

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JPSG program efforts complement eachother in that they are looking at differentapproaches to this challenging problem.

Limited Effects Technology (LET)Today military rules of engagement, legalconstraints, and policy, which are driven byconsiderations of the potential for injury tobystanders and unintended damage to prop-erty, may restrict the use of force. Bothcivilian law enforcement agencies and themilitary need more options for stoppingfleeing suspects and for handling and con-taining crowds. The JPSG is sponsoring anumber of efforts in this area. A key consid-eration in each of these efforts is that the tech-nology be legally and socially acceptable.

Stopping Fleeing Individuals. To stop individuals, the JPSG issponsoring development of a ballistic device—a gas-launched,wireless, electric stun projectile with a self-contained powersupply. The projectile adheres to clothing and imparts a strongelectric shock. A successful demonstration of a prototype wasdemonstrated in August 1996.

The JPSG is also sponsoring development of eyesafe laser daz-zler devices to disorient individuals; a vehicular laser surveil-lance and dazzler system was demonstrated in June 1996.

Law enforcement and military personnel need less lethal, fasteracting pyrotechnic devices such as flash-bang grenades, smokegrenades, and so on. The JPSG is funding a program to developsuch devices.

Crowd Control. Both law enforcement and military representa-tives advising the JPSG have agreed that using sound to controlcrowds shows promise but that the precise effects of such a tech-nology have not been well documented. As a result, the JPSG issponsoring a study to determine these effects.

Figure 3

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Further development and funding may be sought in the area ofLET after current projects are completed in December 1997 andthe results are evaluated.

New Body ArmorThe performance of thejointly developed, conceal-able body armor, discussedearlier in this report, wasmuch better than anticipated.The design goal was that thevest areas covered by insertswould stop bullets from aRussian AK-47 assault rifleat a range of 328 yards. Intesting, the armor stoppedthese bullets at around 190 yards. The insert areas of this vestshould offer protection from “cop killer” bullets, as well. Thesize and position of the inserts were chosen to minimize the like-lihood that its wearer would be killed instantly, while still allow-ing the armor to be inconspicuous and “wearable.” Figure 4shows a body armor prototype worn by a soldier at the U.S.Army Natick Research, Development, and Engineering Center,both with and without his uniform blouse.

In addition to developing concealable body armor, the JPSG isdeveloping improved outergarment body armor. The JPSG pro-gram has demonstrated ceramic inserts as alternatives to thosecurrently used in the military’s Ranger Body Armor, with a re-sulting weight savings of around 30 percent. The JPSG is alsosupporting the use of new materials in the development of anentirely new outergarment body armor that offers protectionfrom a 30–06 armor-piercing bullet, at about a 40-percentweight savings over current body armor offering a similar levelof protection.

Another challenge being undertaken is development of a helmetweighing less than 5 pounds that stops handgun bullets and of-fers limited protection from rifle fire. The current KevlarTM hel-met, issued to the military and used by police SWAT teams, isnot designed to offer handgun or rifle protection. The proposed

Figure 4

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helmet will consist of atitanium shell with aKevlarTM variant liner.Figure 5 shows both theliner and the shell of aprototype of this helmet.(The shell does not con-form totally to the linerbecause excess materialresulting from its manu-facture has not yet been trimmed.)

The new inserts for the Ranger Body Armor that the JPSG de-veloped are being evaluated for the U.S. Special OperationsCommand. Concealable armor is of great interest to law enforce-ment. The U.S. Secret Service has placed an order, and the FBIis evaluating prototypes. Eleven prototypes were ordered by theU.S. Army for use in Bosnia. The helmets and outergarmentbody armor may be found useful for hostage rescue work andSWAT teams in general.

Medical TechnologiesThe JPSG is sponsoring a limited demonstration of the applica-tion of telemedicine to the provision of medical services to re-mote locations. Telemedicine is the practice of health caredelivery, diagnosis, consultation, and treatment using interactivevideo, audio, and data communications. While telemedicinetechnology is fairly mature, its deployment and utilization arestill low.

This demonstration is being conducted in Federal penitentiaries;the technology can help them better fulfill the responsibility forproviding full-time, comprehensive medical care to prisoners. Inmany places it is difficult to find specialists or those willing totreat prisoners either inside or outside prison walls. Telemedicineaffords an excellent opportunity to extend the range of healthcare inside prisons and jails while avoiding costly and poten-tially dangerous trips to local hospitals.

DOD requires the same kind of access to medical informationfrom remote areas, both in war and in operations other than war,

Figure 5

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such as providing humanitarian relief in Rwanda, giving disasterassistance to the victims of Hurricane Andrew, or detaininglarge groups of foreign nationals. This telemedicine capabilitycan provide medical care to deployed personnel and, as the mis-sion dictates, to the local populace, detainees, and others.

The JPSG, in collaboration with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons,DOD, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, operatestelemedicine suites in the Federal penitentiaries at Lewisburg,Pennsylvania, and Allenwood, Pennsylvania, the Bureau of Pris-ons’ Federal Medical Center at Lexington, Kentucky, and theVeterans Health Administration Medical Center in Lexington,Kentucky (see figure 6). There is also the potential for DOD toadopt this technology to small or remote installations and disas-ter relief missions.

Lexington Medical Center

Lexington VA Hospital

USP, FCI Allenwood

USP Lewisburg

Information Sharing During CrisesBoth the law enforcement and military communities respond tocrises. However, the effectiveness of their response is often lim-ited by the inability of the participants to easily and securelycommunicate and share information. The JPSG is addressing

Figure 6

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this problem by taking advantage of advances in civilian- andgovernment-sponsored information and communications tech-nologies. The JPSG plans to demonstrate an interagency crisismanagement system that provides the capability to readily andsecurely communicate and share information among agencies.Using the existing commercial communications infrastructure(i.e., the World Wide Web and cellular communications) andcommunications security technology developed under the spon-sorship of the National Security Agency (NSA), this informationmanagement system should demonstrate the following:

• A crisis management center providing real-time situationawareness of the location of deployed forces, crowd loca-tions and densities, threat areas, and potential locations ofprobable suspects. The system includes the capability totransmit images.

• Access to and sharing of relevant information through com-puter systems with “firewalls” to assure the required levelof privacy and security. Access will be based on therecipient’s information needs, authorized level of access,and parent organization.

• Automatic update of significant events to deployed person-nel as well as decisionmakers.

Data exchange and retrieval will be accomplished through theInformation Support for Law Enforcement (ISLE) integratingarchitecture. The NSA-sponsored FORTEZZA encryption de-vice will be employed to provide privacy and authentication.The telecommunications portions of this system will be providedby leveraging the DARPA Global Mobile (GloMo) Communica-tions Program.

Demonstrations of a crisis management testbed, involving lawenforcement and military agencies, were completed in October1996. NIJ’s National Law Enforcement and Corrections Tech-nology Center–Rocky Mountain is supporting this effort by con-ducting a study to determine the interoperability requirements oflaw enforcement agencies involved in crisis management.

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Locating Sniper FireLocating and neutralizing snipers is a need of both the militaryand law enforcement communities. Unfortunately, the mainmeans used today for gunfire detection—the human ear andeye—are highly inaccurate. The JPSG intends to develop anddemonstrate an affordable sniper detection system that can de-tect and locate a sniper to within a 10-foot by 10-foot area, inurban as well as rural environments, and at ranges greater thanhalf a mile.

Locating a sniper in urban environments is challenging becausemanmade structures cause echoes, complicating detection byacoustic means, and hide visual cues such as muzzle flashes.Another major technical challenge is motion compensation forsniper detection systems that are mounted on moving vehicles orworn by soldiers or police officers. Although mobile systems aremore technically challenging, they offer inherently greater flex-ibility than fixed-site systems.

This sniper detec-tion effort focuseson developing sys-tems that can be(1) carried by andput in place byhand, (2) worn,and (3) mountedon vehicles. Tech-nologies beingexplored employacoustic, IR, inte-grated IR-acoustic,and integrated IR-

laser sensors. Figure 7 shows portable acoustic systems thatwere demonstrated at the Camp Pendleton, California, test sitein May 1996. Six prototypes of the best performing acousticsystems from the Camp Pendleton demonstration will be fabri-cated and provided to the military, potentially for use in ongoingoperations such as those in Bosnia.

Figure 7

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In October 1996 a portable, integrated IR-acoustic system wasdemonstrated at Camp Pendleton. This will be followed in April1997 by an integrated IR-laser system demonstration also atCamp Pendleton. The integrated IR-laser system tracks a bulletin flight based on the heat caused by friction as the bullet passesthrough the air. The bullet’s track is then used to determine itsthree-dimensional trajectory. Based on this information, the sys-tem can determine the exact location of the sniper. This systemwill effectively locate snipers even when they employ advancedtactics and special devices such as silencers and flash suppres-sors to conceal their location.

Demonstrations of sniper detection systems that are worn arescheduled to be completed by the summer of 1997.

Locating and Tagging Individuals and PropertyLocating, identifying, and monitoring the movement of indi-viduals, vehicles, and containers are important law enforcementand military functions. However, the technologies currentlyavailable to perform these functions do not work as well as theyshould. With better technologies, emergency medical care mightbe delivered faster, movement of contraband tracked more accu-rately, and stolen property located more precisely.

The JPSG program will demonstrate these locating and taggingtechnologies, relying heavily on ongoing related DARPA effortsin electronics miniaturization and packaging, especially of navi-gation technologies such as Global Positioning Systems, and inreduction of power consumption. The two major efforts in theprogram are Soldier 911 and tagging.

Soldier 911. This technologyprovides the capability to lo-cate, identify, and track themovement of individuals andvehicles by using a device aboutthe size of a brick. The devicecan be handheld, attached to theharness system that a soldieruses to carry his other equip-ment, or mounted in a vehicleor aircraft. Figure 8 shows a

Figure 8

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Soldier 911 unit. Soldier 911 can be programmed to provide anearly warning signal to individuals, vehicles, and aircraft whenapproaching a dangerous area. It also has the ability to emit adistress or “911” call—hence the name “Soldier 911.” When anindividual with a Soldier 911 system gets in trouble, he can callfor help by simply pressing a button. The resulting distress callautomatically provides the coordinates of the location of thesignal’s origin to the station receiving the call.

Soldier 911 could also be called Law Enforcement Officer 911.The JPSG sponsors portions of this ongoing DARPA programbecause of its obvious value to law enforcement, particularlyin operations at or near the U.S. borders or in other remotelocations.

Soldier 911 is being demonstrated with U.S. forces in the formerYugoslav Republic of Macedonia and in the Republic of Korea.

Tagging. The second JPSG effort in this technology area is a12-month effort to develop and demonstrate a family of minia-ture, low-cost, wireless, modular devices that can locate, iden-tify, and monitor the movement of selected individuals and othermobile objects.

Other EffortsIn addition to the seven groups of technologies described above,the JPSG is also sponsoring studies in the following four areas:interactive simulation and training, perimeter security, smallmobile sensors, and detection of explosives. These efforts arestudies, rather than programs, because while there is a consensusthat work needs to be done in these areas, sufficient informationwas not available to develop a coherent, structured program.

The objective of each of these studies is to better define theproblem and, if warranted, to enable an appropriate program tobe developed. Additionally, these studies will in themselves pro-vide useful products. The perimeter security study, for example,will produce for security managers a single source documentthat lists available intrusion warning systems and devices andtheir capabilities and limitations.

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Part III: Program BenefitsThe JPSG program has proved a remarkable success. In lessthan 2 years it has already produced a number of technologyprototypes:

• A Soldier 911 system.

• An alternative ballistic insert for the Ranger Body ArmorSystem.

• A concealable body armor.

• A laser surveillance and dazzler system.

• A concealed weapons detection system.

• A telemedicine suite tailored for application in a correc-tions environment.

• Fixed site and portable sniper detection systems.

From DOJ’s perspective, the joint technology partnership hasopened doors to new technologies. DOD has gained a greateraccess to the law enforcement community and an understandingof its needs. New avenues to move technologies to and fromprivate industry have also been opened to both partners. Ulti-mately, the future of this partnership will depend on the valueand importance of the technologies that the JPSG produces.

With the initial technology plan well established, the JPSG hasbegun to develop a new plan that builds on the old. Among thenew technology areas being considered are vehicle stopping;noninvasive drug detection; punctureproof and flexible,nonpermeable gloves and puncture- and cut-resistant personnelarmor; explosives detection; and simulation for training, plan-ning, and analysis.

Inquiries for more information or submissions of concepts forconsideration by the JPSG may be sent to jpsg@snap.org on theInternet or to:

Defense Advanced Research Projects AgencyAttn: Dr. David Fields3701 N. Fairfax DriveArlington, VA 22203–1714

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