DOD analysts tailor battlefield intell for tactical units

U.S. joint forces and coalition partners participated in a coordinated exercise this month aimed at figuring out how best to coordinate vast amounts of intelligence data gathered by satellites, drones and manned aircraft, DOD Buzz reports.

Empire Challenge 2009, an annual intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) exercise hosted by the Joint Forces Command under the sponsorship of the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, used the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif., as a setting in which to try to replicate the terrain and conditions of Afghanistan. The goal of this year’s exercise was to conduct simulations that would give military personnel more practice filtering useful information from the clutter received from various ISR platforms that they could provide tightly focused intelligence information to small unit commanders upon which they could take immediate action.

Analysts want to push ISR out to the tactical edge in a way that improves the quality of data that dismounted units get, DOD officials said. Ultimately, they seek to provide small patrols with as much imagery and sound intelligence as a fully wired brigade command post would have at its disposal, the officials said.

Some of those involved in the exercise were tasked with setting up ambushes, sniper attacks, IEDs, car bombs and mortar attacks that would mimic those conducted by insurgents in Afghanistan. Gathering intelligence on these activities were unmanned aerial vehicles such as the Air Force’s Scan Eagle and ones used by coalition partners such as Australia and the United Kingdom. Analysts in the Joint Intelligence Lab in Suffolk, Va., and in Europe communicated with each other via live chats in an effort to sort through the data and boil it down to a form that would be beneficial to combat troops. The information was then pushed to users in the field via secure and interoperable networks.

Some new technologies were tested as well during the course of the simulations. Among those tested was a new high-definition video sensor ball that would offer improved video quality available through an encrypted data stream.

The specific goals of the exercise were evaluation of new data-sharing techniques, demonstration of multi-intelligence battlespace awareness, and assessment of the Distributed Common Ground Systems’ Capabilities Document and Concept of Operations Version 2, reports Defense Update.

DOD is ramping up ISR not only by steering funds toward UAVs but also by establishing new programs such as the Air Force’s Project Liberty, which employs manned, sensor-equipped C-12 aircraft to provide full range video and signals intelligence to ground forces,  Defense Systems reports.

As more ISR platforms are deployed, joint forces exercises such as Empire Challenge are likely to occur more frequently as U.S. and allied military forces grapple with a flood of ISR data each day.