Page 11: of Marine Technology Magazine (July 2010)

Desert Star Systems LLC

Marina, CA

Tel: (831)384-8000

Email: tgray@ desertstar.com www.desertstar.com

CEO: Marco Flagg

CFO & Sales/Marketing Manager: Thomas Gray

Vice President: Matthew Crenshaw

Production Manager: Jesse Harkness

Testing Capabilities: 17-ft. DR-520 Rigid Inflatable Boat for ocean testing, a pressure sensor for leakage testing, an industrial centrifuge for production, a water circulator for production/calibra- tion, and a laser printer for production and engineering.

Number of Employees: 6

Annual Sales: $850 to $1m

Desert Star Systems was founded in 1992 by Marco Flagg and was re- organized as a LLC corporation in 2000. The company is focused on the rapid design and manufacture of advanced sensor systems for field applications in the defense, science and commercial exploration seg- ments. Most of Desert Star’s product line has been developed through the

NOAA SBIR program or through similar programs. The company recently developed the first solar pow- ered, geomagnetic SeaTag animal tag.

It is currently being used on logger- head turtles in Casey Key, Fla., with future tests and deployments planned throughout the world from Alaska to

Antarctica. Desert Star Systems is a mixture of manufacturing and engi- neering. Desert Star manufacturers acoustic positioning systems, acoustic releases, acoustic modems, underwa- ter autonomous cameras, Special

Forces reconnaissance systems,

SeaTag animal tags, and diver homing systems. Generally most of these sys- tems are “off the shelf” with the exception of one-off engineered sys- tems. For example, Desert Star has made several systems specifically designed for custom applications such as for Northrop Grumman,

Lockheed Martin, and others. In 2007 Desert Star began working on its SeaTag product line and shipped their first tag in early 2010. SeaTag-

GEO is the first solar powered, geo- www.seadiscovery.com Marine Technology Reporter 11

SeaTag