Located on the southwestern edge of California’s Sacramento Valley, Travis Air Force Base is both massive and historic. The giant bombers of the Strategic Air Command flew from here; now the 60th Air Mobility Wing hosts huge C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster III transports, and KC-10 Extender refuelers. The nearly 6,400-acre base is the No. 1 military air terminal in the U.S. for handling cargo and passenger traffic. More than 11,500 active and reserve personnel, nearly 4,000 civilians and 1,700-plus buildings support transport, refueling and humanitarian missions. There’s even a 200-plus bed medical center.

Keeping aircraft and airmen safe at Travis is a priority—one with an unfortunate precedent. In 2018, a minivan filled with ignited propane tanks rammed through the base’s main gate and drove into a ditch. The driver died in the resulting explosion.

The quest for a protective edge has led to deployment of the first automated drone-based monitoring and perimeter security system for a United States Air Force installation. The free-flying Smart Aerial Monitoring System (SAMS) and the tethered SAMS-T are automated eye-in-the-sky solutions from Brooklyn-based Easy Aerial. Slightly rechristened by the Air Force as the Smart (Air Force) Monitoring System and the SAFMS-T, their rollout represents a two-year collaboration done under Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs, conforming to security and situational awareness requirements.

“We’re now operational,” Kenny Perkins, the civilian chief, plans and programs for the wing’s 60th Security Forces Squadron at Travis, said a few months after the system’s December deployment. “We’re working on integrating it into our daily operations. We can use it for perimeter fence security checks, should there be an incident. The next phase is to get the fire department fully up. And we’re working with the maintenance community to bring this platform to benefit them as well.”