Outdoor Test Facility (OTF)

The Outdoor Test Facility (OTF) provides an on-call, multi-faceted capability for deploying, evaluating, testing, and demonstrating technologies.  The OTF testing site is located on Kirtland Air Force Base consisting of approximately 2 square km of available testing of ground sensors with additional capabilities to test long range sensors.  The site also includes a mobile Command Center, instrumentation, vehicles, infrastructure/solar power, and camera / communication tower to perform testing.  A secondary Command Center is located in the International Programs Building.  This Command Center along with a number of related technologies and informational posters is used for demonstration and training purposes.

Testing Capabilities

The OTF program provides timely and in-depth evaluations and analysis on the operational effectiveness of various border security related technologies and systems.  The open architecture of the OTF can accommodate various types of sensors, video assessment, and communications depending on the design requirements of a specific test scenario.  Currently the OTF tests various sensor-based systems that could be deployed on borders and lines of control to reduce the illicit crossing of personnel and vehicles.

Accomplishments

• Created in support of one of the CMC’s Visiting Scholars, Major General Mahmud Ali Durrani’s (ret.), cooperative monitoring study of the utilization of technologies along the Pakistani and Indian border.
• Successful validation of various technologies in support of DOE’s mission to employ border security related technologies.
• Support of various foreign and domestic border security related workshops and training scenarios.
• In 2004, recognized as one of DHS Science & Technology’s test facilities.
• Integral part of DHS’s Arizona Border Control Initiative 2004 through testing of a number of technologies before implementation along the U.S. southern border, which led to a better understanding of the types of sensor systems that would be effective.
• Integral part of DHS’s Arizona Border Control Initiative 2005 through testing of various radar systems which culminated in DHS’s “Radar Rodeo”, which led to a change in a large acquisition of radar systems for DHS.
• Official test site for DHS HSARPA’s buried fiber optic sensor system, which has led to a prototype installation along the U.S. southern border and eventual northern border.
• Through years of testing technologies and systems, the OTF program was influential in establishing USCENTCOM’s Border Security program.

Past Users

The primary customer since its conception in 2003 has been NA-24, but subsequently has been utilized in support of DHS, DOD, industry partners, and other organizations within Sandia.

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