DLA Aerospace Energy team contributes to Jupiter research, fuels Juno spacecraft launch

FORT BELVOIR, VA, UNITED STATES

03.21.2017

Story by Elizabeth A Stoeckmann 

Defense Logistics Agency   

The aerostats operate under the direction of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection bureau and are equipped with an array of high-powered surveillance and communications equipment.
“We support CBP, part of the Department of Homeland Security, with helium for their aerostats,” said Doug Smith, DLA Energy Aerospace Energy director. “The main program we support is the Tethered Aerostat Radar System and we’ve been supporting it for more than 30 years.”
TARS is a look-down surveillance system detecting and reporting suspicious aircraft flying towards, arriving at, or passing through the U.S. border. CBP aviation enforcement officers act on TARS reports by investigating or interdicting suspicious aircraft as quickly as practical.
“TARS is the most cost-efficient capability that we own,” said Richard Booth, director of domain operations and integration for CBP’s Office of Air and Marine. “It’s like a low-flying satellite system, but cheaper to launch and operate,” Booth explained.
Aerospace Energy supports CBP’s 24/7 surveillance operations for 14 different aerostat deployments with CBP. The aerostats detect daily criminal activity in their operating areas, both in the air and on the ground. Whether it is a drug bust, groups of illegal immigrants, boats smuggling people or drugs or staging areas for drug runs, aerostat surveillance systems are among the most cost-effective tools in CBP’s inventory.
“The aerostats are aerodynamic balloons and fly like kites in the wind—no one pilots them,” said Rob Brown, CBP program manager for TARS. “Raising radar and other sensors to high altitude boosts surveillance range, and the physical sight of an aerostat is a visual deterrent to illegal activity in the air and on the ground,” Brown said.
TARS uses Aerospace Energy-supplied helium for deployment heights as high as 12,000 feet. This allows long-range radar to overcome line-of-sight constraints caused by the curvature of the Earth and other terrain limitations, according to CBP officials.
The average size of the TARS (aerostat) is 10 percent longer and 15 percent wider than an average blimp and stretches from a football field goal post to the 60-yard line.
“The smallest of our tactical aerostats, the Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment system, can fit within the small belly of the larger TARS system,” Brown said.
Heading south along the Texas border U.S. Border Patrol operates half-dozen surveillance aerostats to monitor known human and drug smuggling entryways into the U.S. The river and vegetation in these areas makes it difficult for agents to detect and respond to the illegal activities. Therefore, agents use aerostats to elevate surveillance cameras high above the uncooperative terrain to gain a decisive tactical advantage in sensing and maneuvering to disrupt and/or apprehend the bad actors, Brown explained.
For example, on Dec. 1, 2016, Border Patrol agents from Zapata, Texas, working with the Government of Mexico, seized 6,283 pounds of marijuana with an estimated street value of $5,026,000. The agents working aerostat operations observed some illegal activity on the Mexican side of Falcon International Reservoir. The agents noticed several subjects loading bundles of contraband on a boat and contacted Mexican authorities to notify them of the location. The Mexican authorities located and confiscated the narcotics.
Damon Moore, Aerospace Energy supplier operations deputy, said Falcon Reservoir is one of the top bass fishing lakes in the country and is the site for several major bass tournaments each year.
The Rio Grande River channel is the official border between the U.S. and Mexico. With proper licenses, both U.S. and Mexican citizens can access the water. There is no wall or border checkpoints, which makes the use of the aerostats very important for surveillance of illegal activity, Moore explained.
“I have fished the Texas side of Falcon Reservoir on several occasions and over the past two years it is encouraging to look up while on the lake and see the aerostats up in the air,” he said. “Because of the lake’s recent history, it gives me an extra sense of security while fishing on the U.S. side of the lake.”
“It’s the diversity of the Aerospace Energy mission that continues to impress and give me a sense of pride in what we do each day at work supporting the DHS mission of securing the border from the trafficking of illegal immigrants and drugs,” Moore said.
Aerospace Energy has an enduring partnership with Homeland Security’s Border Patrol operations and supports multiple aerostats strategically stationed along the U.S. and Mexico border for surveillance programs by supplying bulk gaseous helium in tube bank trailers.
Aerospace Energy owns and maintains a fleet of helium tube trailers staged at numerous vendor-fill plants ready worldwide on customer demand. This includes short-notice requests, since DLA Energy has the ability to quickly react and support needs through a coordinated effort, Smith explained.
In most cases requirements are part of a long-term Aerospace Energy sustainment plan that issues competitive Indefinite Delivery & Indefinite Quality contracts for bulk gaseous helium to support numerous aerostat programs around the globe, including support to DHS/CBP programs.
“We employ the services of multiple suppliers to meet these program needs,” Smith said.
“We coordinate with the Bureau of Land Management (Department of the Interior) that manages the federal helium reserve to buy our helium,” Smith said. “The agreement allows the delivery of crude helium to our suppliers, who refine the helium to required quality levels and then provide the helium directly to our customers. However, with gaseous helium, we have trailers that go to the vendor’s fill points, load the helium and then deliver it to the customer location.
Smith said they also coordinate with the DLA Energy regions who offer quality assurance support.
“These quality assurance representatives, in this case at DLA Energy – Americas, go to our vendor fill points to ensure the quality control program keeps the helium we provide CBP on specification,” Smith said. “We do this for all of our customers, whether Department of Defense, or in this case DHS.”
DLA has directly supported aerostat systems for more than 20 years under the DOD with overseas operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in Southwest Asia combat theaters and with DHS/CBP domestically for law enforcement activities.
In 2012, CBP began a series of demonstrations with tactical aerostats to counter the rising trend of illegal immigration in the Rio Grande Valley of southern Texas, Brown explained. “The Border Patrol quickly learned how to operate and support the camera-equipped aerostats, and now there are six such systems deployed in the region.”
After the successful demonstrations, the U.S. Army transferred several aerostat systems and spares to CBP, and loans the Border Patrol additional systems currently in the field, he said.
DHS’s largest aerostat, the TARS, was originally an Air Force program supported by DLA Energy. DLA Energy’s strategic partnership for logistics support with DHS has been in place for five years.
“Throughout these program transitions, DLA always remained and continues to remain a critical logistics partner with CBP supporting all of our critical helium supply requirements,” Brown said.
“In addition to providing the helium at better-than-market prices for CBP, DLA consistently demonstrates their outstanding commitment to our law enforcement mission and our program personnel,” said Kim Dorman, TARS logistics manager.
“We throw a few curve balls to DLA now and then by relocating deployment sites, changing order quantities off-schedule due to contingencies or simply reacting to unplanned concerns,” Dorman said. “DLA delivers what we need, where we need it and when we need it – DLA’s flexibility, professionalism and mission focus is worthy of emulation across all of the government.”
Smith said Aerospace Energy is developing and implementing the DLA strategic plan, a Whole of Government strategy.
“We leverage economies of scale, buy helium for all of our customers that includes DOD, DHS, and support operations at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,” Smith said. “The more requirements we bring to the table, the more interest we are able to gather from industry. The more competition we receive, the more competitive pricing we receive as well. This is a win-win for all involved, DOD, DHS and our helium suppliers.”
CBP has approved spending plans for these aerostats well into the next decade. In 2013, CBP Air and Marine Operations received control of the TARS program after nearly 25 years of U.S. Air Force management.
CBP law enforcement personnel sing the praises of the aerostats, claiming these systems to be “game changers” due to their effectiveness, relatively low operating costs and overall results in securing our borders.
Always improving and finding smarter ways to do business is not only one of DLA’s strategic goals, but something Aerospace Energy believes in, Smith said.
“Aerospace will continue to focus on providing logistics support for helium to CBP, as well as all of our customers, in an economical and efficient manner. I’m proud of the work my staff does in support of this mission and look forward to strategic engagement with CBP, DHS, and helping to secure our nation’s borders,” Smith said.
DLA Aerospace Energy manages the worldwide acquisition of missile fuels, liquid propellants for space launch and satellites, aviator’s breathing oxygen and other bulk industrial chemicals and gases – including nitrogen, oxygen, argon, hydrogen and helium.

• Date Taken: 03.21.2017
• Date Posted: 02.01.2018 10:58
• Story ID: 264248
• Location: FORT BELVOIR, VA, US