Firm Participates in U.S. Northern Command’s Meeting on Joint Military/Civilian Response to Crisis Events

April 04, 2007 — Auxilia Inc., a Troy NY-based firm specializing in unmanned systems development and training, participated as invited subject matter experts at a Table Top Exercise hosted by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) at Peterson AFB, Colorado, March 20.

USNORTHCOM, is a key arm in coordinating Federal military response during crisis events like Katrina. It is seeking to implement coordination of private sector involvement in national civil emergency situations. The March 20th meeting focused on the increasing use, yet complex details, of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operations in joint military/civilian emergency response activities. Team Auxilia participated at the meeting as featured private sector subject matter experts at the invitation of NORAD and USNORTHCOM Commander, Admiral Timothy J. Keating.

Auxilia, focuses on advanced operator training for air, land, and aquatic unmanned systems (UMS), on platform-independent development of UMS applications concepts, and on computer simulation of UMS systems. The Auxilia team at the Colorado meeting presented perspectives based on extensive experience with unmanned aircraft systems and related remote sensing and high altitude military systems. The team contributed to discussions on UAS capabilities and limitations in augmenting NORAD and USNORTHCOM’s mission to provide military support to civilian authorities.

Among topics of interest at the meeting were potential UAS uses for crisis event damage assessment, search and rescue (SAR), identification of toxic plumes, transit route mapping, and water/ground contamination. Other important concerns included FAA coordination with respect to UAS operation in the national airspace and UAS potential in the Homeland Security realm.