Raytheon Sensors Will Monitor the Amazon

ANAUS, Brazil, July 26 -- Raytheon is working with the Government of Brazil to build a $1.4 billion remote-sensing system for surveillance of the Amazon.

The System for the Vigilance of the Amazon (SIVAM) will use a variety of sensors, including stationary radars, satellites and geophysical monitors, to gather data from the Amazon region. The Government of Brazil will use the data to protect the sensitive environment of the Amazon, improve air safety, increase the accuracy of weather forecasting, assist in the detection, prevention and control of epidemics, help to manage land occupation and usage and ensure effective law enforcement and border control.

Raytheon-supplied sensors -- including synthetic aperture radars, multispectral scanners, optical infrared sensors, high-frequency direction-finding equipment, and communications and noncommunications exploitation gear -- have been installed onto three remote-sensing aircraft, modified versions of the Embraer ERJ- 145 fo remote mapping, forest fire detection and photoreconnaissance.
SIVAM will also contain 14 state-of-the-art Raytheon fixed-base air traffic control radars and six transportable radars, supplemented by five existing government-furnished ATC radars and five newly developed SIVAM airborne radars, also adapted ERJ-145s, outfitted with Raytheon and Swedish sensors. Collectively, they provide an area-wide monitoring capability permitting vastly enhanced counter-smuggling, border surveillance and law enforcement operations over an area the size of the US west of the Mississippi.