Turkey to buy technology to locate terrorists hiding from UAVs
4 October 2012 / EMRE SONCAN, ANKARA – Zaman – Turkey is planning to acquire the necessary technological equipment to enable the detection of terrorists who try to conceal themselves from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Terrorist use techniques such as covering themselves with aluminum foil, which reduces body heat and radiation rising into the air to a minimum, and hiding under umbrellas or in body bags to keep out of sight of the UAVs.
Short-wave infrared technology will be integrated with the UAVs purchased by Turkey from the US, which fail to locate terrorists hiding at night. The planned purchase will pave the way for UAVs to detect short-wave radiation, enabling the detection of these terrorists. The short-wave infrared technology can detect even smallest heat and radiation release.
Turkish defense experts told Today’s Zaman that this technology may well work but that better intelligence is still necessary. “The [terrorist] organization can find solutions to this technology with the support it gets from foreign countries,” one source said. Last June, terrorists from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attacked Turkish soldiers in the Dağlıca district of the eastern province of Hakkari, resulting in the deaths of eight soldiers. In the counter-attack, the army struck against the terrorists. Those killed were found to be carrying umbrellas in an effort to avoid detection. Turkish intelligence units learned that the terrorist organization acquired 5,000 of the umbrellas in northern Iraq.