Fibre optic security systems for land and sea based applications

QinetiQ have been developing security systems for land and sea applications using interferometric based fibre optic sensors. We have constructed and tested a multi-channel fibre-optic hydrophone seabed array, which is designed for maritime surveillance and harbour security applications. During a recent trial it was deployed in a coastal location for an 8 day period during which it successfully detected and tracked a wide variety of traffic. The array can be interfaced with an open architecture processing system that carries out automatic detection and tracking of targets. For land based applications we have developed a system that uses high sensitivity fibre optic accelerometers and buried fibre optic cable as sensor elements. This uses the same opto-electronic interrogator as the seabed array, so a combined land and sea security system for coastal assets could be monitored using a single interrogator.