Integration into Incident Management Teams (IMT)
and Emergency Operation Centers (EOC) Processes and Use

The United States Forest Service is working with NASA to show that Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) can be used to support wildland fire suppression operations. The Forest Service is looking at UAS to augment not replace our current manned platforms; which fulfilled over 1150 imagery requests throughout the continental United States between April and October 2007. Our participation in the Western States Fire Mission offers the Forest Service a unique opportunity to showcase the utility of new technological developments to a large audience of fire fighters, land managers, decision makers, and the general public. We are not only interested in the platform and the associated ground control stations, but also the sensors, communications equipment, sense and avoid systems, and image processing and decision support systems, that create a UAS. The Forest Service is working on implementing these technologies into our current manned program until FAA regulations allow file and fly operations in the National Airspace, and the economics of UAS operations is competitive with manned operations. Our goal is to create information not just intelligence. Our firefi ghters must have the most current information available to support fire suppression operations and to keep the public well informed.