Tunnel Detection System Digs Deeper

Ground-penetrating radar sensors might have reached new depths.

Fred Mohamadi, the founder and CEO of TiaLinx Inc., says his company’s newest hand-held radars have wide radio bands that allow them to produce clearer images and penetrate deeper than many current ground radars. The Army has purchased the system, and TiaLinx is now marketing the devices, called Eagle5-PH and Eagle5-MH, to border protection agencies, which use such technology to detect drug-trafficking tunnels.

Mohamadi declines to specify the Eagle5’s range because, he notes, that information could alert criminals exactly how deep to make their tunnels. Typical ground radars penetrate more than 10 feet, he says.

“This provides the knowledge that officials need to have about an enemy’s activities and existence,” he adds.

Most ground-penetrating radars use narrow or single-frequency radio bands, but TiaLinx developers expanded their system’s radio spectrum from 3 gigahertz to 8 — a wider band that allows for more precise imaging, Mohamadi says.

The roughly 3-pound hand-held devices include display screens so that officials can see underground while they’re in the field. The readings can be transmitted to a computer, as well.

The radars also have motion sensors that can detect movement behind barriers and underground. “You could monitor hostage takers behind a wall,” Mohamadi says, “or bad guys in tunnels.”

Topics: C4ISR, Tunnel Detection