these are called sona buoys. a sensor package that s parachuted out of the aircraft, floats on the surface of the ocean, and will deploy a hiredphone. once it hits the water s surface, it has saltwater switches that activate different deployments. everything in this canister starts to unwind. there s gear packed in nicely. some of it floats to the surface so there s a radio antenna that talks to the aircrafts or the buoy in the aircraft, they re constantly in communication. then the microphones, hydrophones are looking for the ping. this came from american manufacturers, sent a cargo plane to indiana in recent days to pick up more than 1,000 buoys. the device was first tested and deployed by the u.s. navy but not for this purpose. in anti-submarine warfare, this is one of the tools the navy has to look for and track enemy submarines. they re under the ocean s surface. they don t have a radar signature. you need to use sound and smart
get down to this kind of quality. we call it resolution. this is taken from an airplane flying at a much lower altitude. satellites will play an important part because they can cover a large area. the airplanes need to get that closer visual inspection. we ve talked about it in the breaking news just now. it was one of australia s airplanes. that shows their capability to see with much better clarity. from what i understand, it s more importantly the signals they re detecting on the plane. so there s a visual search, but it s the sensor package on the plane that can look for melts objects. so there are limits to satellite technology? there are. right now it s a legal limit. it s about 19 inches in resolution. this by comparison is probably
will, that, with the proper sensor packages allows what we call a wide area persistent surveillance using radar detection or gunfire detection. we can monitor that broad area. the sensor package is complimented with a variety of cameras with thermal imaging or traditional-style cameras that can be conclude to the exact location as we noticed some sort of movement or, or gunfire again on a particular area. jon: a lot cheaper to operate than one of those unmanned aerial vehicles? absolutely. the cost of a system is significantly lower than drones. and the cost of operation for these systems is hundreds of dollars, rather than thousands and tens of thousands of dollars for some of the drone options. jon: all of us who have loved ones in the military thank you for putting this thing together. looks like a great system and reasonably inexpensive too. absolutely. jon: dan, thanks very much. thank you. jenna: from the president