Surveillance business turns multi-billion dollar domain

PARIS: Snooping has ever been part of human nature, and is now a multi-billion dollar business domain, too. The general assumption is that major snoopers earn their bread by prying on other nations, but the domestic business could be more exciting for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) players.

"There are an increasing number of permanent assets in the skies, and this has become an almost permanent fixture in places in Iraq and Afghanistan, doing intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance," said an ISR expert taking part at the Paris Air Show.

He says there is an ever-increasing role for unarmed aerial vehicles as surveillance requirements are growing in different parts of the globe, as against the past when disturbances were limited to a few hotspots.

Experts say one reason for the sharp growth in ISR demand is because of a growth in civilian demand, as against the traditional use of ISR that was limited to the government sector. They said an increasing number of non-state actors and narco-terrorists are threatening nation states, some with the aid of advanced technology, forcing governments and major businesses to invest in surveillance.

"The ISR market for 2012-2016 is projected to be worth $118.5 billion for the US market, and $51.5 billion for the rest of the world," said Tim Carey, vice-president, space and airborne systems of radar and missiles major Raytheon.

He said the successes of ISR infrastructure in Iraq and Afghanistan had enhanced its perceived importance. The US joint forces command had recently sponsored use of a Raytheon cross-domain, multi-national data sharing capability.

The cross-domain enterprise all-source user repository (Centaur) features machine-to-machine, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information sharing between US security domains and multi-national partners' security domains.