As many of you know, fire season is in full swing in the Northern Hemisphere with devastating effect and will start up in the Southern Hemisphere soon. With that, I want to highlight how the Airborne Sensor Operator participates in this very important public safety operation.
Historically and currently, the backbone of aircrew members getting the job done is the pilot career field (both fixed wing and rotor). However, as most of us know, with the advent of new technology in our industry, more and more sensors, different type of aerial platforms, mission management systems, etc. are being employed. Along with that, ASOs are slowly becoming an important part of this industry sector.
One area of the Aerial Fire Fighting operation that requires ASO expertise is “Reconnaissance or Patrol Flights.” According to “Interagency Standards for Fire and Fire Aviation Operations” (Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management National Park Service U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Agriculture Forest Service, 2017)
“The purpose of aerial reconnaissance or detection flights is to locate and relay
fire information to fire management. In addition to detecting, mapping, and
sizing up new fires, this resource may be utilized to provide ground resources
with intelligence on fire behavior, provide recommendations to the IC when
appropriate, and describe access routes into and out of fire areas for responding
units. Only qualified Aerial Supervisors (ATGS, ASM, HLCO and Lead/ATCO)
are authorized to coordinate incident airspace operations and give direction to
aviation assets. Flights with a “Recon, Detection, or Patrol” designation should
communicate with tactical aircraft only to announce the location, altitude and to
relay their departure direction and altitude from the incident.”
An example of this type of mission and capability is the Colorado State PC-12 Multi Mission Aircraft. Click on the hyper link below and get a commander brief of this Capability and its role in Aerial Fire Fighting.
Colorado Multi Mission Aircraft & CO-WIMS
Again, I just wanted to highlight or share how our profession is becoming an important member of this critical public safety team. Part 2 and 3 of this series are just referenced information you might find interesting and informative regarding Aerial Fire Fighting.
If you’re an Aerial Fire Fighter or SME and want to share more about Aerial Fire Fighting with your fellow ASOs or future Aerial Fire Fighting candidates, please let us know your thoughts on what it is like, training requirements and the future of sensor ops, both manned and unmanned.
ASOG Desk Editor
Comments
Thanks Patrick,
...and with the third video in your series highlighting the increasing research and development into the use of UAS/RPAS with much longer endurance/loiter time over the target area, plug-and-play Synthetric Aperture Radar systems optimized for use on UAS/RPAS platforms will become increasingly effective. Think about it, a platform such as a runway independent Scan eagle could loiter at altitudes that do not affect the stack which allows more Lead Planes and controllers that, in turn, enables more Air Attack and Air Tankers to be in the stack. Also, having a longer duration higher altitude RPAS could also enhance ground communications over great distances (OTH and BLOS) by carrying a Comms Relay Package (CRP) payload, an airborne repeater or retrans that is always overhead. We have an exact roadmap and a blueprint for what Manned/Unmanned coordination looks like, as we've learned these lessons from protracted military operations worldwide where airspace is very effectively shared between the various types of aircraft.
Hi Scott, no shame in highlighting your technology and sharing different professional perspectives. This is one reason for ASOG. Ref PC-12 MMA: Great point to make. Adding SAR to the kit would enhance the platforms capabilities. Based on my research for this post, I notice Colorado is not the only agency (or Aerial Fire Fighting company) with dedicated MMA aircraft. Plus, many are focused on EO/IR. If you’re interested in digging deeper in the Aerial Fire Fight community, take a look at this event (looks like the next one is 2020, but the attendees list might be a good ref point)… https://www.aerial-firefighting-northamerica.com/aerial-firefightin...
Hi Group! I read the article and studied the current capabilities and mission of the PC-12 MMA that CO-WIMS is operating, and I couldn't help but notice that the first thing listed on the "Limitations and Caveats" slide is the inability to penetrate a cloud layer with the MX-15 sensor (exact phrase was "can not see through clouds" and "low clouds over the target area...").
This is where integrating a low cost and low SWaP Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) pod such as IMSAR's NSP5 ER onto the PC-12 Airframe would exponentially increase their ability to operate in all-weather and day/night conditions. Real-Time and Near-Real Time high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar image products are very easily adapted to satisfy almost every single imagery and mapping requirement listed in the CO-WIMS mission parameters. Training time to learn to operate the radar sensor and exploit radar data is minimal, and it probably would take someone longer to learn the in's and out's of operating the Wescam MX15 than it would any IMSAR radar system.
This all sounds like a shameless plug for a product I am extremely familiar with, but honestly- it would help mitigate the environmental limitations of a strictly optical sensor system, and would definitely take an aircraft such as CO-WIMS PC-12 MMA to a whole new level of all weather day and night capability and support those brave men and women on the ground who are engaged in active suppression operations, digging firelines, and clearing fuels.