Check Out This ‘Fully Loaded’ SUV

Here’s how the U.S. Army is decking out its emergency response vehicles. We pass this along, not to provoke Army-envy, but to indicate what’s electronically possible these days with mobile emergency communications in an SUV.

This Chevy Suburban is operated by the Army North, the command that responds to civil disasters. In this case, it responded to FEMA’s Joint Field Office in Baton Rouge, La., in response to Hurricane Gustav.

The SUV provides ready access to the Defense Department’s classified and unclassified networks, commercial cellular networks, and first responder radio networks. It carries its own satellite dish (less than a meter in diameter), and connects to Defense networks via a commercial satellite. It is loaded with equipment racks, the contents of which are described in the Nextgov article we link to here.

Of course there’s a GPS system and, it seems, just about any technological assist a disaster responder could covet. So here’s what’s possible in an SUV, Security folks.