SES S.A. has introduced a fully integrated portable surveillance and communications solution designed to provide enhanced situational awareness for border security, special event monitoring and disaster response missions around the world.

Tactical Persistent Surveillance (TPS), SES's first Government+ product offering, is a highly portable solution capable of quick global deployment and operations. The modular TPS platform is based on Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) inflatable aerostat technology, which hosts a variety of advanced electro-optical (E/O) sensor and communications payload options at altitudes up to 1,000 feet.

The advanced sensor payload can transmit or backhaul ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) video and data via satellite to a centralised monitoring and control centre, using small aperture and quick deploy flyaway Ku-band antennas.

The cost-effective ISR solution enables security, military defence and first responder teams to monitor areas on demand to detect, locate, characterize, identify and track people, objects and potential threats up to 5 kilometres away.

As part of its modular and multifaceted design, TPS can incorporate MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) radio technology and provide a mobile ad hoc communications network with 3G, 4G, LTE or WIMAX broadband connectivity up to 20 miles from an E/O sensor in areas where infrastructure is non-existent or destroyed.

Satellite-delivered IP service is also an option within the MIMO coverage area, enabling any IP enabled device to support a broad range of field applications, including video streaming, voice, Internet, and remote mission-critical applications such as biometric identification.

"TPS brings together advanced surveillance and communications technologies to help governments around the world address their defence, security and disaster response challenges more rapidly and effectively than before," explained Nicole Robinson, Head of Government Market Solutions Centre at SES.

"TPS is the first of many customised government solutions to be launched as part of SES's Government+ portfolio of innovative ISR and disaster response offerings.

It allows defence, security and emergency response teams to gather and analyse real-time, relevant intelligence, which in turn enables them to make the most accurate and informed decisions virtually anywhere in the world."