The MV Sharpie is a vessel owned and operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society since December 2017. She is being used in their direct action campaigns against illegal fisheries activities.
25-460: The ship is an Island-class patrol boat built by Bollinger Shipyards , Lockport, Louisiana and first launched in 1991 as the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Bainbridge Island . The vessel is identical to her sister ships MY Farley Mowat and MV John Paul DeJoria . After 22 years of service, it was retired in a ceremony in New Jersey on 17 March 2014. The vessel was purchased and
50-476: A Lockheed Martin engineer went public with allegations that the company and the Coast Guard were ignoring serious security flaws in the refitting project, and that they were likely to repeat the same mistakes on similar projects. The flaws included blind spots in watch cameras, FLIR equipment not suitable for operating under extreme temperatures, and the use of non-shielded cables in secure communications systems,
75-443: A thermographic camera that senses infrared radiation . The sensors installed in forward-looking infrared cameras, as well as those of other thermal imaging cameras, use detection of infrared radiation, typically emitted from a heat source ( thermal radiation ), to create an image assembled for video output. They can be used to help pilots and drivers steer their vehicles at night and in fog, or to detect warm objects against
100-782: A "mob of over 50 skiffs " threw Molotov cocktails and rocks burning the MV Sharpie ' s hull and breaking windows. In February 2020, the MV Sharpie was fired upon while on "routine" patrol of the Vaquita Refuge in the Gulf of California . Island-class patrol boat The Island-class patrol boat is a class of cutters of the United States Coast Guard . 49 cutters of the class were built, of which 3 remain in commission. Their hull numbers are WPB-1301 through WPB-1349. The 110 feet (34 metres) Island-class patrol boats are
125-470: A U.S. Coast Guard modification of a highly successful British-designed Vosper Thornycroft patrol boat built for Qatar , Abu Dhabi , and Singapore . With excellent range and seakeeping capabilities, the Island class, all named after U.S. islands, replaced the older 95 feet (29 metres) Cape-class cutters . These cutters are equipped with advanced electronics and navigation equipment, and are used in support of
150-543: A cooler background. The wavelength of infrared that thermal imaging cameras detect is 3 to 12 μm and differs significantly from that of night vision , which operates in the visible light and near-infrared ranges (0.4 to 1.0 μm). Infrared light falls into two basic ranges: long-wave and medium-wave . Long-wave infrared (LWIR) cameras, sometimes called "far-infrared", operate at 8 to 12 μm and can see heat sources, such as hot engine parts or human body heat , several kilometers away. Longer-distance viewing
175-571: A part of Patrol Forces Southwest Asia to provide the Navy's Fifth Fleet with combat ready assets but all have been replaced by Fast Response Cutters. As built, these vessels were all 110 feet (34 m) in length. In 2002 as part of the Integrated Deepwater System Program , the Coast Guard began refitting some of these vessels, adding 13 feet (4.0 m) to the stern to make room for a high-speed stern launching ramp , and replacing
200-482: A violation of TEMPEST standards. In late November 2006 all eight of the 123 ft (37 m) WPBs were taken out of service due to debilitating problems with their lengthened hulls – all eight hulls were cracking when driven at high speed in heavy seas. These as well as other issues – such as C4ISR problems – drove the program $ 60 million over budget, triple the original bid for the eight boats converted. The 41 unmodified 110s are now being pressed harder to take up
225-506: Is made more difficult with LWIR because the infrared light is absorbed , scattered , and refracted by air and by water vapor. Some long-wave cameras require their detector to be cryogenically cooled, typically for several minutes before use, although some moderately sensitive infrared cameras do not require this. Many thermal imagers, including some forward-looking infrared cameras (such as some LWIR enhanced vision systems (EVS)) are also uncooled. Medium-wave (MWIR) cameras operate in
250-496: The FBI conducted 10 aerial surveillance missions between April 29 and May 3, which included "infrared and day color, full-motion FLIR video evidence" collection, according to FBI spokesman Christopher Allen. A FLIR Talon multi-sensor camera system equipped with an infrared laser pointer (which is invisible to casual observers) for illumination purposes was used to gather data at night. The American Civil Liberties Union raised concerns over
275-532: The Supreme Court of Canada determined that the use of airborne FLIR in surveillance by police was permitted without requiring a search warrant. The Court determined that the general nature of the data gathered by FLIR did not reveal personal information of the occupants and therefore was not in violation of Tessling's Section 8 rights afforded under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982). Ian Binnie distinguished
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#1732886277401300-587: The United States Supreme Court decided in Kyllo v. United States that performing surveillance of private property (ostensibly to detect high emission grow lights used in clandestine cannabis farming) using thermal imaging cameras without a search warrant by law enforcement violates the Fourth Amendment's protection from unreasonable searches and seizures. In the 2004 R. v. Tessling judgment,
325-410: The 3–5 μm range. These can see almost as well, since those frequencies are less affected by water-vapor absorption, but generally require a more expensive sensor array , along with cryogenic cooling. Many camera systems use digital image processing to improve the image quality. Infrared imaging sensor arrays often have wildly inconsistent sensitivities from pixel to pixel, due to limitations in
350-603: The Canadian National Aerial Surveillance Program DHC-8M-100 aircraft mounted with infrared sensors was instrumental in the search for Justin Bourque , a fugitive who had killed three Royal Canadian Mounted Police members in Moncton . The plane's crew used its advanced heat-sensing camera to discover Bourque's heat signature in the deep brushwoods at midnight. During 2015 Baltimore protests ,
375-506: The Canadian law with respect to the Kyllo judgment, by agreeing with the Kyllo minority that public officials should not have to avert their senses or their equipment from detecting emissions in the public domain such as excessive heat, traces of smoke, suspicious odors, odorless gases, airborne particulates, or radioactive emissions, any of which could identify hazards to the community. In June 2014,
400-638: The Coast Guard's maritime homeland security, migrant interdiction, drug interdiction, defense operations, fisheries enforcement, and search and rescue missions. The cutters have 10 tons worth of space and weight reservations for additional weapons. The Sentinel-class cutters , selected under the Fast Response Cutter (FRC) program, are slated to replace the Island class. Six Island class cutters (USCGC Adak , Aquidneck , Baranof , Maui , Monomoy , and Wrangell ) were stationed in Manama , Bahrain , as
425-615: The Raytheon AN/AAQ-26 are used in a variety of applications, including naval vessels , fixed-wing aircraft , helicopters , armored fighting vehicles , and military-grade smartphones . In warfare, they have three distinct advantages over other imaging technologies: The term "forward-looking" is used to distinguish fixed forward-looking thermal imaging systems from sideways-tracking infrared systems, also known as " push broom " imagers, and other thermal imaging systems such as gimbal-mounted imaging systems, handheld imaging systems, and
450-664: The addition of a second scan mirror, the invention of the first forward-looking infrared camera occurred in 1963, with production beginning in 1966. In 1972, TI introduced the Common Module concept, which greatly reduced costs and allowed for the reuse of common components. The cost of thermal imaging equipment in general has fallen dramatically after inexpensive portable and fixed infrared detectors and systems based on microelectromechanical technology were designed and manufactured for commercial, industrial, and military application. Also, older camera designs used rotating mirrors to scan
475-462: The image to a small sensor. More modern cameras no longer use this method; the simplification helps reduce cost. Uncooled technology available in many Enhanced Flight Vision System (EFVS or EVS) products have reduced the costs to fractions of the price of older cooled technology, with similar performance. EVS is rapidly becoming mainstream on many fixed wing and rotary wing operators from Cirrus and Cessna aircraft to large business jets. In 2001,
500-531: The like. Pushbroom systems typically have been used on aircraft and satellites. Sideways-tracking imagers normally involve a one-dimensional (1D) array of pixels, which uses the motion of the aircraft or satellite to move the view of the 1D array across the ground to build up a 2D image over time. Such systems cannot be used for real-time imaging and must look perpendicular to the direction of travel. In 1956, Texas Instruments began research on infrared technology that led to several line scanner contracts and, with
525-403: The manufacturing process. To remedy this, the response of each pixel is measured at the factory, and a transform, most often linear, maps the measured input signal to an output level. Some companies offer advanced "fusion" technologies that blend a visible-spectrum image with an infrared-spectrum image to produce better results than a single-spectrum image alone. Thermal imaging cameras such as
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#1732886277401550-765: The slack. The eight modified were moved to the United States Coast Guard Yard and moored in Arundel Cove. The U.S. Coast Guard has transferred several ships to foreign navies and coast guards via the Defense Security Cooperation Agency 's Office of International Acquisition's Excess Defense Articles Program (EDA). In May 2023, the United States government pledged to provide the Philippines at least two Island-class patrol vessels which
575-454: The superstructure so that these vessels had enough room to accommodate mixed-gender crews. The refit added about 15 tons to the vessel's displacement, and reduced its maximum speed by approximately one knot. The eight cutters modified were; In 2005, then-Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thomas H. Collins made the decision to stop the contractor's conversion at eight hulls when sea trials revealed intractable structural flaws. In August 2006,
600-473: Was agreed by both sides, as it was offered alongside two Marine Protector-class patrol boats and three Lockheed C-130H Hercules aircraft during President Bongbong Marcos ' visit to Washington D.C . The recipient of the transferred vessels will be the Philippine Navy . Forward looking infrared Forward-looking infrared ( FLIR ) cameras, typically used on military and civilian aircraft, use
625-529: Was donated to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society by medtech entrepreneur Chris Sharp, and it was presented at a press conference on 11 December 2017 in Miami, Florida. The vessel was renamed MV Sharpie , named after its donor. She is 34-metre (112 ft) long, powered by two Caterpillar diesel engines, and can travel at a maximum speed of 29.5 knots (54.6 km/h; 33.9 mph) with a range of 3,300 nautical miles (6,100 km; 3,800 mi). In January 2019,
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