[FLARES] Fw: [FLACOM] DoD Test in Keys next week

[Alan Dixon]

Attention Skywarn folks--Very interesting...
Alan Dixon, N3HOE / WPUC720

--------- Forwarded Message ----------
From: FLACOM@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2002 02:32:27 -0400
Subject: [FLACOM] DoD Test in Keys next week

Just want to make sure everyone saw this story. It was in the Miami
Herald
and on CNN, and posted earlier today to some of the lists. The complete
story is on the Herald website or in Friday's paper.

Posted on Fri, Apr. 12, 2002

Antiterror tests planned off Keys

BY JENNIFER BABSON
jbabson@herald.com

KEY WEST - Using a crop-duster as a potential terrorist weapon, a team of
U.S. Army researchers will release mock biological and chemical agents
next
week just off Key West in a test that may determine whether radars such
as
those used by the National Weather Service could soon become the
cornerstone
of a new national warning system.

''What we hope to gain from this is to basically provide the country with
a
chemical and biological detection umbrella across the U.S. It will
provide
early warning not only for the military but for civilian sectors across
the
country,'' said Maj. Vince Johnston, deputy product manager for the
Army's
Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Point Detection Systems.

It will be the first time the Pentagon has tested a civilian Doppler
radar
for possible use in detecting biological and chemical attacks.

Engineers want to know if the long-range radars that are used all the
time
to compile weather forecasts can distinguish between a cloud toting
raindrops and a cloud carrying something more sinister.

`DETECTION UMBRELLA'

If this test is successful, ''We believe we can put something out in 18
to
24 months where we can have a national chemical and biological detection
umbrella in the U.S.,'' Johnston said.

``This has enormous potential.''

The $400,000 test is being conducted in consultation with a host of
federal,
state, and local agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency,
the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
and
the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Beginning Monday, a crop-duster flown by an EPA pilot will fly 400 to 900
feet above the Gulf of Mexico, between six and 13 miles off Key West.

The four-day experiment is expected to include 43 hours of flying time.
It
will gauge the capabilities of four different radars, including a
National
Weather Service Doppler controlled from Key West, and an Aerostat Radar
System operated by the U.S. Air Force and mounted in blimps that hover
off
Cudjoe Key.

..

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