airport perimeter fence requirements

Over the last decade, hundreds of intruders have hopped fences, crashed cars through gates and even snuck past security to jump a plane at the nation’s busiest airports. In fact, an Associated Press investigation revealed there have been 268 perimeter security breaches since 2004.

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The reality is that perimeter security poses a significant challenge for any airport. Most airports protect their borders with layers of security that includes fences, cameras and patrols. The challenge perimeter security presents at any given airport is related to the physical size of the airport and the local topography, weather and geography, according to John O’Connor, assistant director of Airport Security at Denver International Airport (DEN).

“Airports like DEN, which has approximately 32 miles of physical perimeter fencing, is located in a more rural area and in a local climate that incorporates all four seasons, have different challenges than an airport like San Francisco International Airport, which is located in a more metropolitan suburban area with a temperate climate and surrounded by water,” O’Connor says.

Cost becomes a factor too. The cost of perimeter security adds up quickly when you include man-hours (contract security personnel, local police personnel, etc.); physical barriers (fences, barbed wire and gates); and technology (radar, cameras, intrusion detection devices, etc.)

“The size of an airport’s perimeter and associated fencing will also drive the cost function of perimeter security. There is also quite a difference in terms of cost in maintaining perimeter security at an airport that is 800 acres in size as opposed to Denver’s 32,000 acres,” says O’Connor.

Enter GroundAware from Huntsville, Ala.-based Dynetics. This all-digital ground-based radar detects intrusions in real time and automatically provides actionable information, mobile alerts and integrated live video to security stakeholders via a single interface.

This system serves up rich situational awareness that affords security personnel the real-time information they need to respond to perimeter-based threats. While usually people think of radar as picking up fast-moving objects, like fast-moving weather or airplanes, the GroundAware system detects slow-moving objects such as people, animals, ground vehicles, and is capable of distinguishing between these types of targets.

S Band Radar

According to Dynetics literature, GroundAware is “software-defined Web-based, built with off-the-shelf components and designed by radar experts to make the system easy to configure, deploy and use.”

Dynetics has been building radar since the 1970s, getting its start with air and missile defense applications. A few years ago, the company CEO challenged the Dynetics research and development team to create a ground radar surveillance system designed to protect perimeters. They decided to work in the S band because radar in that band functions in all weather conditions and for slow moving objects at ground level.

“With old radar systems that have been repurposed for perimeter security, weather, be it wind, rain, etc. causes the systems to pick up any movement as a target worthy of an alarm,” says Tom Gates, product marketing and management at Dynetics. “The S band is good in any weather condition.”

The resulting system, GroundAware, utilizes open and modular architecture to maximize flexibility, allowing it to be configured and customized to meet specific customer needs. The software layers, transmit/received characteristics and digital signal processing can be tailored to the user environment. Users set up alarm zones defined as green boxes. Denver set these alarm zones along the perimeter. When a target enters a defined alarm zone, the system automatically sends an alert back to the security operations center where they can review the data and determine a course of action.

“All of that is completely configured and connected to a camera so that when a target enters that alarm zone, the system automatically captures the target and tracks it in real time,” says Gates. “And if you have a decent camera that can pan and tilt and zoom, you can then make visual contact. You know exactly where the target is because the radar picks it up.”

Users define exactly what they want to be notified about. For instance, they might say they only want an alarm to trigger if animals, people or vehicles come into this area. “If it’s in an area where animals are not a problem, they can say they only want to know if there are people or vehicles,” Gates says. “Or they might say they only want to know if something is coming at them from a specific direction. If they are moving away from the area, for instance, they likely do not need to know about it.

GroundAware utilizes Doppler radar so it picks up the movement of legs, hips and arms. “That way we can tell an animal from a person and a vehicle from an aircraft,” Gates says. “It can detect the difference between two sets of legs on an animal and one set of legs on a human.”

All information can be sent in a text message to a mobile device. They can click on a link and see all everything from the size of the target, the speed it’s traveling at, the direction its coming, the distance it is away from the radar and so on. The system can detect objects as much as 5 kilometers away, a vehicle out to 3 kilometers and a human to about 2 ½ kilometers. “What this gives an airport is a very long-term, long-range notice that something or someone is coming at them, which gives them time to respond before something happens,” says Gates.

“The open-ended technology allows us to integrate with cameras, video management systems, access control systems—virtually any kind of command and control system and other kinds of sensors,” Gates adds.

In addition to setting up the system to activate in alarm zones, there is also a way of setting up zones to ignore areas. While DEN chose not to do this, this is a feature an airport might like to have in places where there is a lot of construction activity going on. “You could literally draw an ignore zone so that you wouldn’t see anything in that area,” he says. “It’s on a day-to-day basis, during work hours, that way if you had a lot of trucks or heavy equipment in a given area, you could draw an ignore zone and you wouldn’t see any of the targets in that zone.”

The system also doesn’t get the false alarms other radar systems working in the X or KU band are plagued by.

And it’s very intuitive to use. Dynetics typically spends three days on site with a customer going through a very simple training. With this system, security personnel can go about their business, and no one has to watch anything. The alerts come to them and they can check it at that time. “We use red to highlight the area that the object was spotted, and audible alarms to bring attention to the alert,” Gates says. “This way you are not asking security guys to learn a whole new system.”

“It is literally a Google Maps interface and we did that intentionally because there is virtually no user training required,” he says.

Installation

Installation is fairly easy. DEN installed its test system in a remote area along their perimeter. “DEN has one of the largest perimeter fences in the country,” O’Connor says. “The fence is approximately 32 miles in length. We are trying to see if this new technology will enhance or improve our detection/response capabilities along our perimeter fence.”

O’Connor says they were able to install it on an airfield structure using a man lift. The unit requires a 110-volt power source and Internet access through a server. “The unit was physically installed in about 1 ½ days,” he says.

All of the systems software and hardware components are integrated within an enclosure system to provide maximum installation flexibility. “The radar unit is just slightly larger than an average flat-panel television,” says O’Connor.

Denver’s system was installed approximately 70 feet off the ground. Gates explains radar requires line of sight to work. “It can’t see through solid objects any better than a camera can,” Gates explains. “Radar beams have to bounce off of targets. The higher you can mount the radar, the better, because there are too many obstructions on the ground.”

The radar is very low power and can plug into a wall outlet. It also takes very little bandwidth from an Internet standpoint. In Denver the system is installed using existing infrastructure. A camera system in contrast can take a lot more data than that, especially if it’s an HD camera.

“It is preferable to have a wired connection,” Gates says. “But we have done both, using 4G and wireless extension capabilities. That way if the unit is in a remote area and you don’t have the connectivity, you can still use the radar.”

To the test

Denver International hopes to learn more about the use of this system and its effectiveness in various weather conditions during its pilot program.

O’Connor was first introduced to GroundAware at a technologies conference. He says based on what he learned there he felt it was prudent for the airport to obtain a demonstration unit to evaluate the system on-site via a pilot program. The goals of this pilot program are to ascertain the system’s effectiveness based on typography and weather to determine whether it will be an additional asset to DEN’s layered perimeter security approach.

While O’Connor admits they are currently working through some of the bandwidth issues related to information transmission, the airport intends to retain the demo unit for six to eight weeks to make an adequate assessment of the technology.

“This system offers the airport a technology alternative for perimeter fence security that will (hopefully) enhance current technology, processes and procedures,” he says.

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When there are miles of perimeter to secure, a digital ground-based radar system might improve security. Adding GroundAware as a new layer of security to perimeters across the nation’s airports could make breaches to perimeter security a thing of the past.

 As Gates points out, “Airports need to know as far out as possible when someone or something is coming toward them so they can respond to a potential threat before it becomes a real one.”

Fences surround airports; maybe you’ve noticed this trend over the past 10, 15, maybe even 20 years. As we as a population become more aware of security and potential threats, physical barriers are added to life in the name of protecting us. Some people view these security measures as unnecessary barriers and headaches, while other accept the measures and deal with them.

You can put me in the category of wanting to go through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening at the big airport. Yeah, you read that right… I know the process is flawed and there are issues, but if you have the ability to add a layer of safety, why wouldn’t you? Exactly…

Anyways, back to general aviation and airport fences… I remember as a young kid my father would take me to different airports to watch planes (usually Norwood, MA or Taunton, MA) taking off and landing. I’ll bet if you asked him after paying for my private pilot license if he would have skipped the airport a couple times when I was very young he might say so, but I’m glad we made all those trips on our explorations.

While all those years ago we would sit and watch planes and often there was either no fence or there would be a fence but it would be a short 4-foot fence, just to prevent children (like me) from running out onto the ramp and into a place where we could be in danger. Fast-forward more than 20 years and now almost every airport is surrounded by 8-10 foot fences with three strands of barbed wire strung at the top. Are we at an airport or a prison you might ask… If your airport doesn’t have a fence, it wouldn’t shock me if one was in the plans or on the way during the next few years.

Growing up working at a general aviation airport (Mansfield Municipal, 1B9) I took the fences for granted, they were there and there wasn’t anything you could do about it… But that doesn’t stop a lot of pilots from complaining about the “unnecessary”, “pointless” & “useless” waste of money that an airfield fence is. Keep in mind I say this as a fellow pilot, not someone working in airport management, GET OVER IT!

Seriously, the fences are here to stay, deal with it. If all you have to complain about is the fence protecting your airport and your airplane then I think you have it good enough to not need to complain. If you don’t fall into that group then I’m sure there is something more important that you could spend your time concerned with besides a fence protecting your airplane! Here are three reasons why general aviation pilots should find something else to complain about:

1. Fences serve as a barrier to protect the airfield assets.

Fences keep honest people honest… If a person has real nefarious intentions then it is highly likely a chain-link fence will only serve to slow them down. But, that means that it will take longer to complete whatever nefarious activity they set out to commit. As a result, there is a greater chance they will get caught or possibly even ‘spooked’ away.

Moreover, fences provide enough of a barrier to stop individuals who are aimless and don’t have nefarious intentions but have a lack of motivation to go elsewhere to cause trouble. Essentially dealing with the fence and barbed wire is too much of a hassle for these individuals looking for the “low hanging fruit” type of trouble to cause. It’s much easier to go tip over some trash containers into a yard than to get through a security fence and trash an airplane at the local airport.

On another note, as I highlighted earlier, the fence will keep those who don’t know any better out of the Airport Operations Area (AOA). This means everyone from nosey tourists to children who could inadvertently walk into/break a pitot tube, rudder, etc… At an extreme level, the fence will prevent children from running into a spinning propeller, which would be the worst possible scenario.

2. Fences make aviation prestigious.*

Many pilots complain that the fence keep people away are correct. If someone sees a fence then they are likely to turn away as they will likely not want to be seen as doing something wrong by trying to get inside the fence incorrectly… This is something that we are getting wrong in aviation. Look at neighborhoods and communities. Gated communities are viewed as desirable and prestigious. Airports can do the same thing, it’s literally the positioning that we have wrong as an industry. The airport is a really “neat” place where exciting things are happening and that deserves to be exclusive!

If aviation wants to be successful we need to embrace this feeling. Naysayers will say this is similar to trying to be a country club and being “snooty”… Well yes, and no. Why do you think the country club has nice plush green fairways while the public course has fairways that could be mistaken for sand traps at the private course? If we educate the public that the uniqueness of an airport requires a fence and that is the same reason why they should come and be a part of the airport then we can use the security fence to our advantage. Imagine that, by thinking slightly differently we can take something we now consider a disadvantage and a barrier keeping people away from aviation and turn the fence into our advantage!

3. Fences keep wildlife away.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly these fences do have a role in protecting our level of safety while flying. A good fence will keep wildlife, specifically deer and coyotes away from the runways and taxiways. Have you ever seen a car after it hits a deer on a highway? The deer usually loses that battle, but I’d have a hard time saying the car is the winner very often… Keep in mind cars are designed to be able to run into things, or at least provide a level of safety when they do (or when things hit them). Airplanes on the other hand are designed to fly as effectively and efficiently as possible, not (specifically) to withstand a major wildlife strike.

The same physical barrier that keeps the individual with malicious intentions in the parking lot and not on the ramp keeps deer in the forest and out of the AOA. Again, pilots will say deer have always existed. Again, these naysayers about the airport fence are correct, kind of… The deer population has been skyrocketing throughout the 1900’s and since. The population of deer has continued a distinct increase over the past 20 years. Thus, there may not have been a lot of deer issues years ago before airports were completely fenced in, but there are a lot more deer now, which means the chances are a lot higher of wildlife strikes than they would have been before.

To wrap this up I’ll just say that I understand fences cause people to avoid the airport, but that isn’t because fences have a bad wrap… Ever notice how many people willingly install fences in their own yards? The reason airfield fences keep people away from aviation is the reputation WE give them. The FAA has invested a lot of money in them and I don’t expect them to spend a lot more to rip them down and remove them. So let’s embrace the fences and go out and try to actually use them to our advantage. It’s a challenge, sure; can you handle it? Lastly, change is a reality, and the only thing that doesn’t change is the fact that change is a constant. So, just because fences didn’t use to exist, doesn’t mean we should not have them now…

-Fly Safe, @MTElia1B9

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