LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Civil Air Patrol’s Nevada and Arkansas Wings are using civilian manpower and new technology to assist in the Las Vegas Determined Promise homeland security bioterror exercise.

On Tuesday, CAP will use new technology to take high-resolution digital photographs from the air and transmit them via e-mail to emergency operations centers, using satellite phone connections. Key members of the U.S. military are expected to be on hand for the demonstration.

Satellite imaging equipment for the exercise will be flown into Nevada from CAP’s Arkansas Wing, one of the first in the nation to acquire the new equipment. CAP is in the process of installing the new systems in each of its eight regions.

“This technology significantly improves CAP’s capabilities in homeland security as well as all other missions,” said Col. Drew Alexa, who heads CAP’s Advanced Technologies Group. “The equipment is far less bulky than our older photography systems. With this new digital imaging system, we need only carry a digital camera, a computer and the system itself. The whole system weighs only about 12 pounds.”

Alexa says the new technology is also important because it eliminates the need for each CAP mission flight to have a ground crew waiting with special equipment to receive the images. “With our older medium-resolution video imaging systems, we had to have a ground crew within the proper proximity of the aircraft to receive the images from the plane and transmit them to the waiting customer. Since this system uses e-mail and high-resolution digital camera technology, we can send better photos directly to the customer’s e-mail address. Essentially we’re cutting out the middle man in the transmission.”

CAP is participating in Determined Promise at the request of U.S. Air Force NORTHCOM, FEMA, and the Nevada State Department of Emergency Management.

Soon after the Determined Promise exercise began last week, CAP’s Nevada Wing swung into action. Working with the Nevada Highway Patrol and the Army National Guard, CAP pilots flew reconnaissance above Interstate 15, checking the highway ahead of a shipment of simulated medication en route to a treatment distribution center at the fairgrounds in Logandale, Nev.

The following day, a CAP plane flew a photographer for the Department of Emergency Management above a ground convoy which was transporting simulated medication and medical equipment back to a waiting aircraft. The medical supplies were then transported back to the National Stockpile.

“We’re continuing to improve our capabilities for homeland security, which is important since we’re increasingly tasked with such missions,” said Maj. Gen. Richard Bowling, CAP’s volunteer national commander. “To support taskings like these, we continue to look for the best possible equipment. For example, we’re purchasing Gippsland GA-8 Airvans for our aircraft fleet. With the increased space, we can carry more equipment and personnel, which is particularly important when searching remote areas where terrain is treacherous and we need as much technical help as possible in visualizing the search area.”

To further increase its effectiveness, CAP also is testing night vision and thermal imaging devices.

Having access to such equipment is important for CAP, since its members are volunteers who undergo extensive training for the missions they perform and depend on the organization to provide the resources they need. “CAP owns a fleet of 550 single-engine aircraft,” said Al Allenback, CAP’s executive director, “and those are hangared in strategic locations throughout the country for the use of our members. Now CAP is in the process of purchasing new equipment – radios, digital cameras, laptops, digital satellite phone systems, and new aircraft – all with the intention of making CAP an extremely well-equipped and cost-effective resource for agencies that coordinate search and rescue operations.”

Allenback says CAP can put an airborne platform over any major metropolitan area or strategic resource in the U.S. in two hours or less for about $90 an hour. With aircraft and equipment located in key areas throughout the nation, and with its National Operations Center at Maxwell AFB, Ala. available to coordinate missions, CAP is a good resource for agencies involved in homeland security. CAP currently performs 95% of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and has working agreements with such agencies as FEMA, the Red Cross, the Coast Guard and Coast Guard auxiliary and the U.S. Weather Service.