Intel sharing must be cross service a...

Intel sharing must be cross service and coalition

October 13th, 2010 | Posted by Jack Wittman

BY MICHAEL HOFFMAN

Soldiers sharing intelligence with fellow soldiers will not cut it anymore, said Jim Ryan, the lead for the U.S. Army’s Unmanned Aerial System encryption efforts. Any intelligence collected on the battlefield must to every service and coalition partner.

Speaking at the C4ISR Journal 10th annual conference in Washington, D.C., Oct 13, Ryan said security can no longer be any excuse. Securing the intelligence remains a priority, but the Army must find a way to avoid stove piping intelligence, especially as service members continue to be flooded with intelligence from the additional sensors being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It might sound counterintuitive. How do you provide access to everyone while also protecting it?” Ryan said.

The problem forces the Army to take into account a host of factors. Can separate airframes talk to each other? How do different units
communicate when using different datalinks? And, do they have the right security clearances?

These questions created excuses in the past that caused intelligence to remain stove piped to a small audience on the battlefield within the services, Ryan said. However, that can no longer remain the status quo, he said.

The U.S. will deploy wide area surveillance sensors such as the Gorgon Stare system to Afghanistan and Iraq over the next weeks and months. U.S. and coalition forces need better equipment to access that data, Ryan said.

The Army is making progress toward integrating the different aircraft outfitted with these sensors that fly over the battlefield. Soldiers will fly the Army’s Grey Eagle, Shadow and Hunter UAS from a Universal Ground Control Station next September, he said.

“We are putting our money where our mouth is,” Ryan said