gif 10-8 (nov.dec. 2012)

The Magazine of the National Intelligence Community

November/December 2012 Volume 10, Issue 8

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Intelligence Dominator

Vice Adm.Kendall L. Card

Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information DominanceDirector of Naval Intelligence

Open Ocean Surveillance O Intelligence Integration

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Geospatial intelliGence Forum november/December 2012 volume 10 • issue 8

Features cover / Q&a

17

Departments

2

3

14

27

Editor’s Perspective

Program Notes/People

Industry Raster

Resource Center

inDustry interview

Mladen StojicVice President-Geospatial

Intergraph

28

Vice Admiral Kendall L. CardDeputy Chief of Naval Operations for

Information DominanceDirector of Naval Intelligence

Beyond “Big Data” StorageThe unique ways in which FMV is captured, disseminated and analyzed pose unique problems for storage. By Peter Buxbaum

4

Analysis for ActionThe challenge with UAV video is to quickly and efficiently get it from the platform to the analyst, while also giving analysts the ability to identify priority intelligence requirements without having to watch hours of unchanging video. By Karen E. Thuermer

11

Quest for QualityMany conditions degrade the quality of motion imagery, so government and industry are focusing on testing and automating quality assurance.By Cheryl Gerber8

Open Ocean SurveillanceA combination of new technologies in Earth observation and telecommunication offers near-real-time maritime monitoring.By Joerg F. Herrmann

22

Integrating the Intel EnterpriseAs a whole, the intelligence community will move to an integrated enterprise strategy for balanced application of resource dollars to ensure that intelligence consumers and the nation are well served. By David Pendall

25

Special RepoRt: [ Full Motion Video ]

In the global Internet age, the intelligence community needs to change not only to keep up with shifts in U.S. strategic policy, but also to reflect the fact that the most valuable knowledge in the future may come not from stolen secrets, but from open-source information.

That’s the conclusion of a report issued recently by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, a heavyweight group of former officials and industry leaders that took on the topic of redefining the role of intel-ligence in the 21st century.

The report’s authors acknowledge the significance for the IC of President Obama’s “strategic pivot” from the Middle East to the Pacific region, as well as the shift in focus from combatting terrorism to broader questions of enhancing national “smart power.” But they also go on to address the profound implications of the new information era.

The report recognizes that popular movements, as well as other social developments and technolog-ical change, are increasingly central to the course of events around the world. As a result, it urges, “The IC will need to continue to expand—to a much greater degree than has been assumed or accomplished to date—its reliance on open sources of information that contain or reflect the sentiments, intentions and actions of non-governmental actors—what might be called ‘social intelligence.’

“Today, we still live largely in the world where intelligence is defined as ‘secrets’; tomorrow, we will either embrace a new understanding of intelligence and knowledge, or risk marginalizing analysts from this century’s knowledge revolution, and hence to serve policymakers as effectively as possible,” the report concludes.

Those observations, I think, are valuable for the geospatial as well as other intelligence fields. While classified surveillance programs will remain vitally important, the whole world of other information—from commercial remote sensing to location analysis of Twitter feeds—may tell us as much or more about what we need to know.

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Geospatial intelliGence Forum

Volume 10, Issue 8 • Nov./Dec. 2012

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Compiled by KMi Media Group staffPROGRAM NOTES

Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) has released an application that enables family members and the public to find gravesites and explore Arlington’s rich history. ANC Explorer, developed by Geographic Information Services Inc., allows users to use a smartphone or common web browser to locate gravesites, events or other points of interest throughout the cemetery; generate front-and-back photos of a headstone or monument; and receive directions to these locations.

The information in the app is a compilation of Arlington’s accountability effort, which led to the first-ever review, analysis and coordination of almost 150 years of varying records. As part of the accountability effort, the Army photo-graphed 259,978 gravesites, niches and markers using a custom-built smartphone application and instituted a rigorous process to review each headstone photo with existing ceme-tery records and other historical documents. The end result was the creation of a single,

verifiable and authoritative database of all those laid to rest at Arlington that is linked to the Arlington’s digital mapping system.

This new solution interfaces with ANC busi-ness systems, so there is a central source of data and a relevant set of tools for each role at ANC, allowing efficient job execution with sustained data integrity.

ANC Explorer allows patrons to plan their visit online or interact with it while on premises. They have a customized view of the cemetery with the ability to zoom in and out, query sites, view notable gravesite locations, take part in historic tours and locate memorials. While onsite, a visitor can use the application via their smartphone to map a route

from their current location to a burial site or memorial. Along the route, the appli-cation will highlight other points of interest and events of the day. For those without smartphones, the kiosks in the visitor center provide the same information with printed route guide maps and fact sheets.

This project utilized GIS software from Esri to power the map services on the ANC Explorer website, the maps at kiosks in the ceme-

tery, and mobile applications used by visitors. Esri technology also supports routing on mobile devices that the ANC staff uses for their work. The software used includes ArcGIS for Server and Esri’s software development kits for Android and IOS.

Navy Rear Admiral Samuel J. Cox will be assigned as director, National Maritime Intelligence Center, and commander, Office of Naval Intelligence. Cox previously served as director of intelligence, J2, U.S. Cyber Command.

Charles Beames has been appointed to the Senior Executive Service

and is assigned as prin-cipal director, space and intelligence, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics).

NJVC has announced an organizational realignment resulting in new senior manage-ment responsibilities: Michael Carr, formerly acting chief technology officer and senior vice president, programs, has been officially named CTO; Dave Lavanty, formerly senior vice president, solution sales, now leads the company’s new solutions division;

and Vince Minerva, formerly senior vice president, market management, now directs the new services division.

AGI has hired Jeff DeTroye as vice president for special programs. DeTroye is a retired CIA officer and former

commander, National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Aerospace Data Facility-East, the largest NRO ground station.

The U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation has appointed Dr. James Ellsworth as chief performance officer, with the primary responsibility of leading the organiza-tion’s Certified GEOINT Professional initiative. Ellsworth comes to USGIF from the U.S. Naval War College, where he served as a professor of joint mili-tary operations.

SAIC, which earlier announced its plan to divide into two separate publicly traded companies, has announced a series of executive appoint-ments, including: John Jumper, chief executive officer and chairman of the board, and Stu Shea, president and chief operating officer, of the National Security, Health and Engineering Solutions Business; and Tony Moraco, chief executive officer of the Government Technical Services and Enterprise IT Business.

PEOPLE Compiled by KMi Media Group staff

Rear Adm.Samuel J. Cox

Jeff DeTroye

Arlington App Offers Guide to Fallen Heroes

www.GIF-kmi.com GIF 1 0 . 8 | 3

By Peter BuxBaum

GIF CorresPondentthe unIque ways In whICh FmV Is CaPtured, dIssemInated and analyzed Pose unIque ProBlems For storaGe.


The increased reliance on full motion video (FMV) by today’s warfighters and intelligence analysts poses several of the most profound challenges facing informa-tion and intelligence technology today. Unmanned air-craft, ground sensors and other remote sources provide vast amounts of ISR data, which users want stored for future analysis.

Handling FMV represents a “big data” problem, and the archiving and retrieval of FMV data underscores the storage issues associated with big data.

The increased demand in the military and intelli-gence communities for access to and analysis and exploi-tation of FMV has been driven by the explosion in the number of available sensors and platforms that provide it. A few dozen assets 10 years ago has exploded to thou-sands today. The volume of video taken in Afghanistan in any given year can be measured in decades. And this data is not being collected for its own sake. The military is aware of its potential uses and wants to apply analyt-ics to the data it has collected.

The issue of storing large data sets has come to occupy a larger proportion of the efforts—as well as the budgets—of many an IT organization. Less than a decade ago, the proportion of IT budgets spent on storage was in the single digits. Today, it’s around 30 percent.

But is FMV just another big data storage problem? The short answer, analysts say, is no. The unique ways in which FMV is captured, disseminated and analyzed make the issue of storing FMV a unique problem unto itself. For related reasons, it also makes a lot of sense to talk about FMV storage in conjunction with more com-prehensive FMV solutions.

“Everything now has a video camera on it, and everyone wants to store the video data,” said Mike Manzo, director for geospatial solutions at General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems (GD-AIS). “How you store the data depends on what data is being stored and what use it is going to be put to. Metadata tells you about the data and how important it is to you,

www.GIF-kmi.com4 | GIF 1 0 . 8

what it represents, and what it may rep-resent to someone else at some later date.”

“Full motion video certainly does pro-duce a big data repository,” said Kirk Kern, chief technology officer at NetApp. “But it doesn’t just get stored. It tends to get piped back out. The data is often also processed and scrubbed before it is viewed.”

Some video just needs to be viewed, but doesn’t require long-term storage. “In that case, the options are broader on how you deal with it,” said Manzo.

InFrastruCture Issues

Different kinds or sources of video data may have to be stored at higher res-olutions, depending on who will be look-ing at it later, while some video feeds can be stored at lower resolutions. The higher resolution data, of course, is going to take up more storage space.

Similarly, some sources of data can be degraded over time, both in terms of resolution as well as in raw volume. “You might be able to delete every tenth frame every six months,” said Manzo, “depending on the importance of the data and how it is going to be used.”

This, too, has implications for storage. “Once you develop an understanding of these issues, you can deploy storage solutions to accommodate your particu-lar needs,” said Manzo.

“Full motion video, as well as wide area motion imag-ery [WAMI], places strains on the overall infrastruc-ture, including the repository,” said Kern. “Capturing FMV and WAMI produces large sequential workloads. Playback of the video also makes demands on the infra-structure because it has to support random workloads at various intervals and of different sizes, strengths and resolutions.”

For Kern, storage can’t be viewed in isolation when it comes to FMV, because the video will be retrieved, played back and analyzed at different intervals and at different resolutions after it is captured. “The different require-ments for ingesting and the playback of data make for some interesting design points for the infrastructure,” he noted.

For example, if a video stream is being captured by a storage device and the file is corrupted or packets of data are lost, a complete data set for an entire mission can be lost. “We store video in chunks,” said Michael Chorpash, vice president of sales at Optibase. “Our customers can specify the size of those chunks. So if those sections

stretch 10 minutes, the most they could lose would be 10 minutes worth of video. In other cases, hours of video could be lost. When video packets are dropped, they are gone forever.”

If real-time exploitation of the FMV is required, it’s probably a good idea to push the data repository close to the exploi-tation tools, noted Manzo. Otherwise, downloading the data to the applications could waste valuable time and strain net-work bandwidth.

“It can take hours to download some of these data sets,” said Manzo. “With the data and applications next to each other, analysts are not pushing and pulling the data all over the place.”

“We see an emerging trend where we are building parallel repositories for cap-ture and playback,” said Kern. “We start with disk infrastructure. Disk subsys-tems tend to be very dense and very high performance. In our case, we have a new product called the E-series that satisfies the workload from a physical perspective.

Then on top of that we add some switching infrastruc-ture and potentially some server infrastructure; then software sits on top of that.”

There are multiple deployment scenarios for this type of infrastructure. “Sometimes you will build a high-performance compute infrastructure for ingest and playback for localized geographies, typically your production, exploitation and dissemination [PED] cells,” said Kern. “They may have information come in directly to the cell and are able exploit it at very high rates. For dissemination to forward operating bases and others not geographically close to the PED cell, we use file sharing protocols to distribute the video data.”

NetApp has several military and intelligence com-munity customers that have acquired its infrastruc-ture solutions. “They are able to capture the video at full weight and at the rate it is being produced,” said Kern. “On the exploitation side, they can quickly disseminate the information to the analysts. The analysts are able to produce intelligence from the data much more quickly and without a lot of latency, and that leads to better intelligence for the armed services and the intelligence community.”

Cloud adVantaGes

A cloud computing environment is particularly suited to an architecture in which data and applications

Mike Manzo

Kirk Kern

GIF 1 0 . 8 | 5 www.GIF-kmi.com

are neighbors, according to Manzo. “You don’t have to worry about data coming in and going out,” he said. “It is all taken care of within the cloud structure. Analysts can all collaborate on the same set of videos, instead of having to provide one stream per analyst.”

This allows analysts to work more efficiently and collabora-tively. “One analyst can mark up the video and push it back to the cloud. Then another analyst can take a whack at it,” said Manzo. “All of the data is accessed remotely and all of the applications are next to the data.”

There are several other advantages to using the cloud for these types of applications. “A cloud infrastructure allows you to have near-real-time access to FMV streams,” said Manzo. “If you are doing forensics, pushing the data to the cloud allows you to distribute it more efficiently and allows some sense of redundancy. It is also eas-ier to combine the FMV data with other forms of intelligence such as SIGINT and HUMINT to create a richer situational awareness pic-ture and to ensure that decision-makers have the right data at the right time.”

Processing back in the cloud also makes investing in high-end desktop processors unnecessary, and enables better use of bandwidth. “You can make more efficient use of data center processing power,” said Manzo. “It also reduces the number of people required to do the work.”

The case for cloud computing also includes the more efficient use of storage and other IT resources, since they are provisioned as needed.

The cloud environment facilitates the access to and exploitation of FMV in remote locations. “A warfighter in a sandy place may be using a mobile device that has limited computing and storage capabilities,” said Manzo. “It may do well for viewing videos, but you’d want to take advantage of the infrastructure of a remote cloud to exploit the data. Since the data is not resident in the device, there is less of a security exposure and there are fewer security concerns should the device end up in the wrong hands.”

GD-AIS has a cloud-friendly solution deployed at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. “Our architecture is cloud agnostic,”


As intelligence chief for U.S. Central Command in 2005, Major General John M. Custer (Ret.) was a leader in the search for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaida in Iraq.

Intelligence analysts had large amounts of video, and knew the terrorist leader’s modus operandi, recalled Custer, who currently serves as direc-tor of federal strategic missions and programs for EMC.

“He would drive through town in a white pickup truck, and other vehicles would come up alongside of him to hold rolling confer-ences. They wouldn’t go into a house, because we could get him there,” he said.

“The problem we had was how to find that on a video, because cars driving paral-lel is something that happens everywhere. We didn’t have analytic tools at the time that would allow us to look at 100 terabytes of data in a video file, and pick out the instances across Iraq where that kind of anomaly occurred. Now we can, and that changes everything.”

Custer’s story underscores the rapid pace of change in the ability to manage vast amounts of sensor and other data, as companies like EMC develop improved technologies to store, analyze and protect data and secure the network.

“Big data is not a specific number, such as a petabyte or zettabyte. It’s data that traditional analytic tools are unable to handle, and frequently an amount of data that networks can’t handle. We are fielding incredible sensors now. Every sortie that the new F-35 flies, the airframe itself creates one terabyte of data. So an F-35 squadron can produce a pet-abyte of data in no time,” Custer said.

“We’re also fielding systems such as ARGUS and Gorgon Stare, which are literally petabyte producers,” he continued.

“We have this incredible amount of data, but storing it is not the issue. Storage is a commodity. The issue is how you bring value and make sense of this incredible amount of data.”

Custer pointed to the gap between the speed of ingest-ing data—perhaps 10 terabytes an hour, or 240 terabytes a

day—and the amount of information collected by sensors, which can easily reach 1 petabyte daily.

“You get a new definition of ‘stale’ when you can produce a petabyte of data very quickly, but you can’t analyze or ingest it fast enough. If you can produce a petabyte of data each day, you’re 760 terabytes behind after 24 hours. So stale data takes on a whole dif-ferent view. When a military intelligence offi-cer tells his commander he was able only to look at one quarter of the data, that’s not going to work,” he said.

Another issue concerns the policies developed for pro-cessing, exploiting and deploying (PED) the data, Custer noted, pointing to the example of the Gorgon Stare video sur-veillance system being used in Afghanistan. “When the plat-form lands, the PED architecture calls for unloading the hard drives, putting them in a truck, and driving them somewhere. That’s because we don’t have the kind of data architecture that can handle the data we can collect.

“We’ve always been platform- and sensor-centric,” he observed. “But as you have more constellations of platforms, each with more capable families of sensors, you produce mountains of data, which makes actionable intelligence more difficult to derive. To shift and analyze those mind-numbing amounts of data, you have to have an analytic tool that interacts with the analyst.

“It’s not how much storage you have, but how you do the analysis,” Custer concluded.

Maj. Gen.John M. Custer (Ret.)

Climbing Mountains of Data


said Manzo. “We have leveraged the investment the intelligence com-munity and the Department of Defense has already made in cloud environments. What we have done is put together an architecture that fits nicely in the cloud provided there is enough back-end pro-cessing to do things the things we do. The intelligence commu-nity is already biased toward cloud computing. That is why we have been able to deploy our solution relatively seamlessly into their environment.”

The GD-AIS solution deployed to NGA is serving up FMV and still imagery, and is having the effect of broadening the analyst commu-nity. “They don’t need high-end work stations and high-end analysts,” said Manzo. “They are all hitting the same resources at the same time and they are able to do that because we pushed the data next to the applications in the cloud. They access the data and the applica-tions through a thin client and that better enables distribution and collaboration.”

modular solutIons

Optibase’s offering, the FITIS (Fully Integrated Tactical IPTV System), is an integrated, end-to-end FMV solution for processing, archiving, indexing, managing and disseminating tactical ISR video and metadata sources. “Our solutions are modular,” said Chorpash. “They can be a component or a complete end-to-end solution for FMV ingest, indexing and playback. FITIS enables government and military entities to quickly process and exploit live and recorded video assets to create actionable, reliable real-time intelligence.”

FITIS is used by a special operations group that archives and ana-lyzes full-motion video streams originating on unmanned aircraft, Chorpash said. “In their case, they are able to purge the data after 90 days. Everyone has a different approach and can set their own require-ments based on their missions and goals.”

“FITIS uses advanced compression techniques and supports the latest metadata standards,” said Chorpash. “It supports legacy video as well. The system enables users, either individually or in collaboration, to annotate video content in real-time by inserting free text informa-tion that is frame-accurate for searching and retrieval. Automatically generated geospatial and time-based information as well as users’ cus-tom annotations are logged and indexed for fast retrieval by both local and remote users.”

FITIS also integrates with network storage devices to transit video assets through workflow processes with defined retention periods. “Archives can be maintained for specified time periods, and video clips spliced to create compilations encompassing full mission areas and time-lapse views of targets of interest,” said Chorpash. “FITIS can pro-vide historical data to facilitate future decision making processes, and as after-action aids for training and lessons learned analysis.”

Flash storaGe

NetApp is working on FMV storage solutions that incorporate flash storage technologies, which represent a departure for a com-pany that has traditionally developed and marketed disk-based storage solutions. Flash storage, a solid-state medium, offers a very high level of data storage density at lower costs than other solid state media, although at higher prices than disk storage.

“What we are seeing is the integration of flash storage into disk storage architectures to improve responsiveness as well as the resolu-tion of the data,” said Kern. “When flash storage is applied judiciously

up and down the architecture, we see more significant performance and FMV frame rate benefits than we would get by applying it at a sin-gular point in the architecture.”

NetApp’s future FMV storage solution will likely combine flash with the company’s traditional spinning disk storage. “Flash stor-age has the advantages of high performance and low latency, but it has issues associated with data protection and life span,” said Kern. “Rather than build storage arrays solely on flash, we chose to apply it within specific aspects of the architecture so that we don’t break the budget and we don’t need to provide extra software for data protection in case the device fails prematurely. Taking this approach, we think we will be able to get all the storage capacity of spinning media and the performance of flash.”

Flash-only storage arrays may arrive at some point in the future, but Kern believes applying that kind of technology at this point is be premature. “Some people are espousing flash at the next generation technology,” he said. “We don’t think that it is mature enough for the marketplace today because of its issues with data protection and because its performance degrades over time. We feel the best approach is to integrate flash technology into a holistic architecture so that we can also take advantage of the performance data protection charac-teristics of disk technology.” O

For more information, contact GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly at [email protected] or search our online archives

for related stories at www.gif-kmi.com.


In the process of transporting large amounts of FMV and other GEOINT data from their points of sensor collection in theater to their final destinations at analysts’ desktops or in storage, there are many conditions that degrade the quality of motion imagery. As a result, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and its partners are focused on how best to test and automate quality assurance at every point along the way.

Transporting large video files over limited network bandwidth is a common concern both of the military and the commercial broadcast-ing industry. Rather than reinvent the wheel, NGA and its partners are working with broadcasters to evaluate how to share solutions to improve network transport and work toward an enterprise approach.

“The platform builders and the services have done a good job of real-time surveillance for the troops. The quality of the sensors on existing platforms is very good and, with the introduction of high def-inition sensors, it got even better,” said Ken Rice, chief of ISR integra-tion at InnoVision, NGA’s research and development arm.

“We’ve also done a good job of connecting all the systems together to move motion imagery around the world to different people, but it wasn’t done with an end-to-end enterprise solution in mind. And one of the biggest challenges is in the transport,” he pointed out.

FMV, wide area motion imagery (WAMI) and wide area surveil-lance (WAS), and digital video in broadcasting are all collected in dif-ferent ways. To begin the transition to an enterprise approach, NGA is now increasingly referring to all forms of sensor or camera-collected data as “motion imagery.”

The term “motion imagery” reflects the fact that collection is based more on a continuum than on distinct types. “It’s really a spec-trum as opposed to types of motion imagery. Some of our sensors look very narrowly, at very high definition, and we collect at 30 frames per second, like FMV. But then we’ve got sensors that collect a very wide area at less than 30 frames per second—much slower because of the processing power and bandwidth needed to do that,” said Jeff Malapit, senior systems engineer and NGA support contractor.

The quality of motion imagery varies depending on the conditions of the collection and the network. Varying satellite performance, for example, is a condition of the network. Limited network bandwidth is another. “You might have a collector that can collect at 30 frames per second, but because of the collection or the network conditions, it’ll scale back to 10-15 frames per second,” said Malapit.

There are many different opportunities for motion imagery to degrade in its journey from source to destination. “At each point in the transport line, there might be different encoding, decod-ing, encryptions, decryptions and analog-to-digital video conver-sions. That’s not an optimum way to move this data around,” noted Rice.

squeezed BandwIdth

The escalating number of sensing collection systems and data streaming in from ever-broader global locations has resulted in a flood of data. Add that to the growing demands for video, higher res-olution imagery and the broadening use of online services, and it is easy to see why squeezed network bandwidth is a persistent problem for both the military and the broadcast industry.

“Today most quality degradation is due to limited transmission bandwidth. This is a challenge not only for broadcasters, but also for the military. Existing transmission channels often reach capac-ity quickly, resulting in increased latency and reduced video quality,” said John Marino, vice president of technology, National Association of Broadcasters.

As sensor platforms were developed with speed of delivery as the top priority, relying on existing network infrastructures, quality of motion imagery took a back seat. “Even with inconsistent quality, the speed of the feed is the most important thing. But now we need higher resolution to determine more detail in the scene, and that’s where the transport is holding us back. We need automated tools that can better exploit the sensor feeds,” Rice said.

To usher quality assurance to the forefront, NGA has been work-ing with its partners to apply and develop test and measurement technology to identify where quality degradation occurs and what causes it. “As the Department of Defense and intelligence community deployed technology rapidly, the underlying transport infrastructure was not engineered for test and measurement systems to determine good or bad data. So you don’t know whether it’s an encoder, a net-work, a satellite link or the source image sensor unless you have test and measurement equipment,” said John Delay, chief strategist and architect, geospatial products for Harris Corp.

To address the problem, Harris provides the Multi-Source Analyzer, MSA 100, which tests compressed video, audio and data on

many CondItIons deGrade the qualIty oF motIon ImaGery, so GoVernment and Industry are FoCusInG on testInG and automatInG qualIty assuranCe.

By Cheryl GerBer

GIF CorresPondent


Quest for Quality


any terrestrial broadcast, cable, satellite or telco network. The scal-able tool also works for video-over-IP infrastructures. The tool tests metadata based on Motion Imagery Standards Board (MISB) stan-dards and validates compliance with European broadcasting stan-dards, Delay noted.

Harris also provided the QuiC family of quality control soft-ware for broadcast and file based media analysis. QuiC analyzes files ingested into video servers with three tools: QuiC Pro with scalability for enterprise-level operations, QuiC Express for analysis in less com-plex workflows, and QuiC View for visual presentation of digital con-tent with ties to HTML reports.

QuiC Pro and QuiC Express both come with test templates, a web-based user interface and a web service application program-ming interface (API) that allows communication with digital asset management systems. QuiC Pro is used after content editing, dur-ing automated ingest and for on-the-fly video transcoding and archi-val transfers.

All of the QuiC tools support multiple media formats, a range of video and audio codecs and many metadata formats. A codec is a device or program that encodes and decodes a digital data stream or signal.

qualIty oF serVICe

NGA also uses equipment from Tektronix, which has long spe-cialized in test, measurement and monitoring. Commonly referred to quality of service tools, the standards have risen in recent years to include quality of experience (QoE) real-time monitoring and correc-tion, with increasing complexity as more data is collected. Tektronix QoE monitoring with Sentry, for example, provides ratings that help operators identify video quality defects before they are perceived by viewers.

Harris also uses technology from companies such as IneoQuest Technologies, which offers tools to test a network’s ability to transport video without impairing it along the way.

One form of quality degradation is jitter, the uneven arrival of net-work packets that occurs, for example, when a data network is used for Voice Over Internet Protocol. To assure high quality voice transmis-sion across a network built only for data, organizations use jitter buf-fers to correct jitter on the network.

For video traffic, IneoQuest’s MDI (Media Delivery Index) iden-tifies and measures jitter and packet loss in Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) video transport streams as they undergo time dis-tortions, known also as jitter, when they are transported by packet-switched networks such as Ethernet.

The MDI is a set of measurements used for monitoring and trou-bleshooting networks carrying any streaming media type. It can be used to send an alarm or warn of damage that results in unacceptable video delivery or conditions that will result in undesirable network margins before the video quality is impaired.

The technology identifies and locates delay factors and the asso-ciated rate of media loss. It establishes thresholds and spots distur-bances that exceed these thresholds by detecting network or server changes, incorrect configurations or failures. The threshold may be determined based on the network equipment type, decoder type, mar-gin or the desired quality level based on the circumstances.

The MDI monitors the quality of a delivered video stream and shows the system margin by providing an accurate measurement of

jitter and delay. It provides indications that warn system operators of impending operational issues with enough advanced notice to allow for corrective action before the video is impaired.

Best PraCtICes

Adhering to MISB and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) stan-dards also abets the process of minimizing quality degradation.

A recent motion imagery recommended standard demonstrates improvement in the distribution of WAMI, for example. In November, Pixia Corp.’s specification designating a set of web services for the dis-semination of WAMI products received “best practice” status from the OGC. The WAMI web services describe a scalable method to enable the globally federated distribution of WAMI products for high-perfor-mance, high-speed consumption. The best practice serves as a recom-mended standard.

“This OGC best practice for WAMI takes a significant step toward standardizing how WAMI data needs to be transmitted across the net-work,” said J.T. Robinson, Pixia NGA program manager. “We used to be concerned primarily with high performance and scalability, but now we are focused on quality assurance,” he said.

Improved motion imagery quality from high definition sen-sor optics has contributed to the growth of data volumes in the airborne ISR market in recent years. Pixia HiperWatch FMV data access software was built for large and growing data volumes.

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HiperWatch catalogs into consolidated layers, organizes and shares large volumes of FMV in a cloud-based architecture. It transforms feeds into MPEG-compliant transport streams and sends only the relevant data from disks to applications, thereby providing near real-time access to data during capture and analysis.

HiperWatch uses RESTful web services. Also called a RESTful (Representational State Transfer) web API, it is a style of software architecture based on HTTP for distributed hypermedia systems that have been adopted by major Web 2.0 providers, such as Google and Yahoo.

While NGA’s National System for Geospatial-Intelligence Video Services (NVS) program uses Pixia technology for near real-time stor-age of FMV, WAMI and WAS, the agency uses Front Porch Digital’s DIVArchive for the long term storage of digital video, FMV and WAMI systems, among other solutions.

“We’re digital video experts. FMV and WAMI are relatively new markets for us. You would think that digital video, FMV and WAMI would have similar workflows, but they don’t. One of the reasons the quality is degraded at steps in the chain is the process of converting from analog to digital,” said Steve Atkinson, director, federal sales, Front Porch Digital.

“A lot of times, digital captured on the ground needs to be con-verted to analog to send it across the network. There are different programs for the platforms and the ground stations, with different conversions from digital to analog and analog to digital,” he said.

The loss of pixels in the process of converting from analog to dig-ital, or the reverse, causes quality degradation. “Every time you lose pixels, you are losing information,” he said.

Atkinson noted that the use of standards can alleviate some qual-ity degradation. “We’d like to see more enforcement of MISB stan-dards to achieve common interfaces,” he said.

Digital Conversion

In the commercial broadcasting world, storing all video in digi-tal format helps to minimize quality degradation, although it does not eliminate it. But this is not always possible in wartime reality. Military situations are more dynamic than the fixed procedures in the broadcast industry.

“What we do on the commercial side to minimize quality prob-lems is to use the standards, keep everything digital, and minimize the number of transcoders that are performed on delivery systems,” Atkinson said. A transcoder is a device that translates one form of encoded video to another.

The switch from analog to digital video still has not occurred in many countries, such as Mexico, where it is scheduled for 2015. However, the growing need for high definition, color fidelity and fast frame rate collection to ensure that surveillance output quality is acceptable for preventative and evidentiary purposes is increasing the demand for high definition. Cameras that capture images faster than the normal 60 frames per second are called high definition.

The use of motion imagery in the broadcast industry and the military has similarities besides a network bandwidth concern. “The news workflow is similar to ISR activities in the military,” noted Atkinson. “They both ingest a multitude of feeds, have a live compo-nent and a forensic component,” he said.

In addition, both FMV and digital video use MPEG-2 transport streams, a type of compression standard for coding moving pictures

and associated audio information. MPEG-2 permits storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission bandwidth. It is the format for digital television, cable and direct broadcast satellite TV systems and DVD players, and is used internationally.

ITT Exelis provides various solutions to manage and process motion imagery by compressing it for delivery in near real time while maintaining a degree of quality. The company’s Jagwire enterprise solution manages, disseminates and stores large motion imagery data from geographically dispersed sources with support for multi-ple modalities, from collection to action. The Jagwire architecture streams FMV, WAMI, LiDAR and satellite imagery with near real-time delivery and visibility for collective action.

Jagwire performs on low bandwidth and high latency networks, ensuring that tactical operators in austere environments can dis-seminate information to handheld devices using the Jagwire Media Engine and JPIP streaming. JPEG 2000 Interactive Protocol (JPIP) is used to move motion imagery on demand.

Jagwire has a web-based interface and is standards based. It was built on a service-oriented architecture with open interfaces, making it interoperable with existing systems.

“Jagwire provides critical intelligence to warfighters with lim-ited communications capabilities,” said Michael Ehrlich, prod-uct manager, GEOINT enterprise solutions, ITT Exelis Geospatial Systems.

“We take high resolution imagery with a high frame rate and compress it to product with relevant and significant utility,” he said. “We reduce the footprint of the data that we’re sending by providing intelligent tools on the front end,” he added.

software suite

ITT Exelis acquired adLib, a widely used GEOINT technol-ogy, from EchoStorm about two years ago. Now integrated into ITT Geospatial Systems and named ITT Echostorm, the suite of secure, net-centric software captures, manages, disseminates and stores FMV. From a web-based interface, it provides advanced video, metadata and audio processing for defense and intelligence applica-tions collected from manned and unmanned ISR and ground-based sensors.

In addition, ITT Echostorm is integrated with Intergraph’s video solution, which facilitates the ingestion and reading of video from unmanned aircraft systems and other sources. The Intergraph Motion Video Exploitation solution fuses and displays video data from satellite or ground-based imagery, sensor data and other geo-intelli-gence. It stores video so it can be queried with other geo-referenced enterprise content.

The Intergraph solution uses DVR-like controls, correlates anno-tations for query and contains a video analyst application which enables real-time video enhancements to improve video quality. It allows analysts to integrate video with multiple intelligence sources to enhance situational awareness and strategic decision making capabilities. O




When Lieutenant General David Deptula, Air Force deputy chief of staff for ISR, warned sometime back about the prospect of “swim-ming in sensors and drowning in data,” he touched a nerve among military intel-ligence analysts struggling to cope with the burgeoning amount of motion imagery collected, especially in wide area formats.

Today, UAVs alone are pro-ducing so much video feed that the intelligence community is finding it increasingly chal-lenging to analyze and draw conclusions to determine “actionable intelligence.”

For one, there is the issue of knowing exactly where and when to look, especially since the space beneath an aircraft’s flight path can vary between 25 to 100 square kilometers. With traditional EO/IR video, aircraft are limited to watch-ing approximately 1 percent of that area with adequate resolution.

“This means we are not watching the rest of the area, and we are hoping we’ve got the right spot so that eventually the right time will come along,” said John Bastedo, vice president, Security and Surveillance Division, PV Labs.

This can lead to an overwhelming amount of video data coming from essen-tially dead space. “This is because we are either looking in the wrong place or don’t know when the right time is,” he added.

It’s like searching for a needle in a hay-stack, observed Verne LaClair, ISR product manager for PAR Government. “To eliminate

the scenario of having much of the video data effectively ‘fall on the floor,’ analysts need to weed out hours of no activity or irrel-evant activity to create a ‘highlights reel’ of pertinent information,” he said. “This infor-

mation needs to be current, relevant to a geographic loca-tion and accessible by opera-tional users on mobile devices via efficient data dissemina-tion methods.”

With the growing influx of data that is being produced by UAVs, it has become increas-ingly necessary to bring com-puters into the loop, noted Jonathan “Michael” Ehrlich, product manager, GEOINT Enterprise Solutions, ITT Exelis Geospatial Systems. “The quantity of data being generated requires computer systems not only to provide a means to collect, store and distribute the data, but also to analyze and catalog the video data for analysts and decision makers,” he said.

In pursuit of the most advanced computer pro-

cessing algorithms, however, ITT Exelis Geospatial Systems has noticed a gap form-ing between computerized processing algo-rithms and the analyst.

“While performing advanced computer analytics is an important step in sorting through the flood of data, it is the analyst who is ultimately responsible for forming intelli-gence products and determining the impor-tant aspects of a scene,” Ehrlich remarked. “To manage the influx of data and difficult intelligence questions, it is imperative that

the analyst be able to leverage the technol-ogy to develop better summary products and drive down to the content that solves the problem as quickly as possible.”

The IC must also contend with the fact that data collection is decentralized and often remote, and frequently requires resources outside an operator’s purview or capacity.

“Functionally, information overload is a real concern for operators. All relevant data input must be matched with support for interpreting, correlating, summarizing and visualizing the data against the exist-ing knowledge base, transforming raw bits of data into actionable intelligence,” com-mented John Mackay, president and chief executive officer of Cloud Front Group.

Video is quickly becoming the most in-demand sensor intelligence on the battlefield, making the ability to transport and mine it a top priority. Video data has been increasing in a variety of ways, including the quantity of sensors and platforms, types of sensors, and the resolution and the frame-rate of data acquired.

From PlatForm to analyst

The increased adoption of UAVs has reduced the cost of data acquisition opera-tions, allowing more frequent and longer duration missions to be executed. But the challenge with UAV video is to quickly and efficiently get it from the platform to the ana-lyst, while also giving analysts the ability to quickly identify priority intelligence require-ments in near real-time or later without hav-ing to watch hours of unchanging video.

“All of these factors are compounding the sheer volume of data that must be sifted through and analyzed in order to generate actionable intelligence,” remarked Bastedo.

John Bastedo

Verne LaClair

new teChnoloGy helPs analysts sort throuGh the Vast quantItIes oF InFormatIon ProVIded By VIdeo sensors.

By Karen e. thuermer, GIF CorresPondent

Analysis for Action



In addition, video requires significant bandwidth to deliver, which places demand-ing network requirements on real-time and tactical applications.

The Cloud Front Group has put together an integrated package of technologies to solve the problem of quickly disseminating relevant video data to tactical or real-time operators. “To achieve this goal, imagery object recognition and search software from piXlogic is used to scan captured video for notions of interest such as certain vehicles or people,” Mackay explained.

Once identified, the segment of video surrounding the identified notion is imme-diately routed to any subscribed operator using Flume, an advanced file transfer and synchronization software solution from Saratoga Data Systems.

“The entire sensor feed continues to be recorded and can be downloaded once its mission completes, but real-time opera-tions can be positively affected by this dis-semination of relevant segments, requiring much less bandwidth and providing more resilience to network challenges than actual video streaming,” he said.

The ability to collect, store and distrib-ute metadata, as well as tag or mark events or sequences of interest, greatly assists in working with the large quantity of video feeds collected.

“These techniques enable effective col-laboration, but still require analysts to sift through large quantities of data and tag areas and objects for further analysis,” Bastedo noted.

Wide area motion imagery (WAMI) and other large volume data sources require an even larger number of analysts to mon-itor activities if the current paradigm is extended. WAMI, unlike full motion video (FMV), is high-resolution imagery over large ground footprint areas for long periods of time, allowing persistent surveillance over city-scale regions, and enabling intelligence to be gathered from motion patterns and locations of many simultaneous targets over a large region of interest.

“If analysts can be freed from monitor-ing segments of video or image streams, their focus can be shifted to higher-level analysis and intelligence collection,” he commented. “Hence a key benefit of auto-mation is not to replace analysts, but rather to allow them to focus on the generation of actionable intelligence.”

The current solution, where an analyst watches hours and hours of video streams,

relies solely on human capital, which can be costly, not scalable and prone to errors, said Jim McHugh, vice president of capabilities and service for NuWave Solutions.

But new technology can alleviate this challenge, he said. Software solutions such as piXserve by piXlogic can create a search-able index of images and videos, as well as the text read from visual objects in the back-ground of images and videos.

“This software can provide the analysts with only relevant video segments, which will assist them in making better decisions while understanding situational awareness,” McHugh said. “The increased performance and precision of the analyst creates a cost-effective, scalable solution, which provides a better analysis of an increasing velocity of video data in a shorter amount of time with a higher degree of confidence.”

automated reCoGnItIon

A number of companies offer automated systems to help the intelligence community find nuggets of information, observe pat-terns over time, and other trends.

Nuware Solutions, for example, focuses on providing rapid dissemination of high-priority video data to support real-time tac-tical operations. “Our solution addresses the biggest challenges facing today’s UAV video review process: automated recognition of objects, automated tagging of the video seg-ments with an intelligence based lexicon for search and discover ability, and the alerting of analysts of the video segments needing human review,” McHugh said.

For this concept of operations to work, the video processing must occur as close to real-time as possible. This temporal prox-imity requirement suggests that the video processing needs be in physical proximity to the collection device in order to reduce transmission delay. The reliability of such recognition improves with the quality of the imagery being processed, which gen-erally translates to being closer to the cap-ture source so that compression, recoding and transmission do not degrade the data. Hence, the video processing system must be deployed on the same local area network as the sensor itself.

“Using our UAV example, the UAV should have on-board object recognition processing as well as video capture capabilities,” Mackay described.

The information provided by the alert must include the sensor data that caused

the alert. This video segment then needs to be delivered with the highest-possible resolution to ensure operators can inter-pret the video accurately and make the best recommendation for the success of the mission.

Given the network challenges in tacti-cal environments, an efficient compression and transmission protocol must be lever-aged to provide the maximum possible video resolution over the available network con-ditions. Such a protocol must be resilient against network latency, intermittency, and the error rates common in tactical condi-tions so that missions can rely on the alerts being delivered.

“To address this technology challenge we use Saratoga Data System’s Flume, a 100 percent software solution to file transfers,” Mackay reported. “In recent testing by the Air Force and Army, Flume has proven sig-nificant improvement over standard net-work file transfer protocols.”

lInKInG dIsParate data

PV Labs has a long history of integrating sensors of various types into its stabilization platforms with fielded and demonstrated capabilities. In addition, the company is active in WAMI technology. “WAMI is the fabric that links disparate data sources, such as FMV, SAR and SIGINT, in both space and time by providing the context,” Bastedo explained. “WAMI is the narrative connect-ing seemingly disjointed vignettes.”

In essence, WAMI enables both manual activities and automated algorithms to piece together these disparate data sources to identify relationships, patterns, and trends. Although WAMI produces a great deal more data, its contextualizing ability makes it pos-sible for an analyst to filter only the relevant streams of FMV, reducing the overall quan-tity of video to sort through. WAMI is also able to guide in the targeting of FMV assets if there are currently no FMV resources in a potential area of interest.

“The situational awareness and contex-tual information provided by WAMI not only assists in sifting through the moun-tains of FMV collected, but can also tell you where you need to be looking,” Bastedo reported.

The ability to cue other sensors based on patterns or events from a wide-area view can provide a tangible tactical benefit by guiding the assets currently available, and thereby maximizing their value.


PV Labs’ PSI Vision product line offers complete WAMI solutions that measure in the hundreds of megapixels and allow for the collection of large area footprints (25-100 square kilometers) at sufficient resolution to permit automated motion detection and tracking of vehicles and people. Large quan-tities of data from a variety of sources can be stored in the company’s Tactical Content Management System (tCMS), which provides a data repository and processing engine for the acquisition, storage and distribution of multi-INT data. The tCMS offers the ability to simultaneously monitor multiple areas or movers, from any data subsets, either in real-time or forensically, including over band-width-constrained links.

“This approach empowers algorithms and analysts to retrieve and exploit spatially and temporally relevant intelligence directly onboard the airborne platform,” Bastedo explained. “Effectively, we are pushing the processing and fusion as close to the data sources as possible in a manner that allows us to reduce the overall quantity of data by immediately distilling it into actionable intelligence.”

PV Labs has worked closely with Signal Innovations Group, for example, in demon-strating the ability to detect and track tens of thousands of moving targets simulta-neously across the entire field-of-view of a WAMI sensor.

“This information is currently used to identify patterns of motion over large sections of an urban area,” Bastedo said. “The PSI Vision system, using the real-time processing capabilities of the tCMS, enables real-time decision-making based on intelligence from WAMI data. The high quality and accuracy of the WAMI data col-lected combined with a robust tracking solution improves the analyst’s operational efficiency and effectiveness by convert-ing the pixels acquired in video and imag-ery into intelligence suitable for decision and action.”

In addition to Jagwire—enterprise soft-ware for the management and dissemina-tion of FMV, WAMI and static imagery—ITT Exelis is developing a video synopsis product that enables rapid and efficient data exploi-tation and reduces the discovery and exploi-tation time of WAMI. This wide-area video exploitation system is designed to fill the gap between advanced processing algorithms and the imagery analyst.

“The core of our video synopsis solu-tion is the decomposition of geospatially

consistent wide area aerial imagery,” Ehrlich said.

Since wide area persistent surveillance video is characterized by long collections over a fixed region of interest on the earth, it is desirable to decompose the source video into background and foreground compo-nents. When separated into components, the data is less redundant, highly compress-ible, and may be used to drive advanced visualization.

“The decomposed imagery drives effi-cient visualization of the captured content,” Ehrlich explained. “This is due to the capa-bility being developed for recomposing a selection of the input data driven by a user query on a sub-frame basis. In the query, specification of a spatiotemporal region of interest is combined with parameters for determining the data of interest and com-position instructions. The system is able to respond with video generated on-demand that is specific to the user’s needs.”

VIdeo standards

PAR Government develops and distrib-utes a software solution called GV3.0, which is free to U.S. government and authorized contractors. It is a lightweight, Java-based, platform-independent raster imagery and FMV viewing software application that sup-ports management and playback of National Imagery Transmission Format and NATO Secondary Imagery Format raster imagery, and MPEG2 transport stream video data.

“GV3.0 is recognized in the DoD com-munity as a go-to application for viewing imagery and video data in a myriad of DoD and commercial formats,” LaClair added. “GV3.0 employs open video standards as defined by the Motion Imagery Standards Board and has been certified for fielded use.”

PAR has also developed a commercial video framework as a software development kit (SDK) called Gv2F. Gv2F facilitates cus-tom development of desktop and mobile solutions to ingest and manipulate compli-ant FMV with metadata.

“The SDK has been designed to effi-ciently and effectively embed support for FMV and imagery for commercial geospa-tial analysis software solutions such as Esri’s ArcGIS 10.1,” he said.

2d3 Sensing offers TacitView v3.1 and Catalina v2.1, which are modular, standards-based, COTS, service-oriented architecture/cloud-enabled motion imagery products designed to reduce workload and accelerate

production timelines through an efficient and user-friendly architecture, explained Danny Proko, vice president of business development.

“We are continually adding modu-lar capabilities through our internal R&D efforts to address the gaps identified dur-ing mission execution, which highlights our decreased time-to-field and the agil-ity of a COTS solution,” remarked Proko. “The architecture we have designed and built enables us to rapidly add new capabili-ties and technologies as they become avail-able without having to refactor our existing codebase, and this open system architecture allows the rapid integration of third-party components, such as detection, tracking and characterization algorithms.”

Future dIreCtIons

For FMV technology to grow and mature to the point of real-time exploitation, LaClair maintained, the temporal aspect of motion video information needs to be addressed. “We do not need to treat the source as a static image. Much of the pertinent informa-tion is limited in its useful time to support actionable decisions.”

As FMV collection sources continue to grow exponentially, so will the need for robust data management, processing, archive, re trieval and visualization.

“Adhering to existing and new metadata standards as well as developing secure appli-cations are critical to the sustained, effective use of video data by analysts attempt ing to extract actionable information in real time,” he said.

FMV is currently being utilized in many disciplines, including military, border patrol, public safety, emergency response, wildfire response, law enforcement and animation studios.

“Providing solutions to these diverse user requirements will require propagation of an architecture that readily allows the user organization to develop their own cus-tom desktop, web based, or mobile applica-tion suite,” LaClair concluded. “Being able to readily insert new application specific solu-tions into operations will be the key to con-tinued effective use of FMV.” O

For more information, contact GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly at harrisond@kmimediagroup.

com or search our online archives for related stories at www.gif-kmi.com.


Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) has released the GRGlobe application, a new commer-cial software solution to create, edit and visualize GIS data natively in a Google Earth environment. GRGlobe enables the visualization of spatial data by structuring it into organized layers and overlaying the feature data on a Google Earth globe. GRGlobe provides structure to data to enable GIS function-ality for use in government, defense, emergency response, law enforcement, energy, environmental, utility, education, land management, forestry and other applications. Many of the unique GIS workflows

have been available for years in the SAIC GeoRover software tools. SAIC has re-factored these tools into GRGlobe to offer the same capability in the popular Google Earth environment, providing users with simple tools to generate timely, accurate and relevant geospatial information. These tools support common coordinate formats, enable users to easily import from coordinates to visualize this information, and create products from layers and attribute data into popular briefing and GIS formats.

Melissa Koskovich;[email protected]

Alliance to Deliver Turnkey “Analytic Cloud” SolutionAs military and intelligence agencies grapple

with the vast amounts of geospatial and full motion video imagery collected by sensor systems, a new solution is offering to help them in a cloud environ-ment with a solution that has both a big-data infra-structure and state-of-the-art analytics capabilities. NetApp and Data Tactics Corp. recently announced an alliance to deliver a comprehensive, integrated

solution to government and commercial organiza-tions. The NetApp and Data Tactics solution enables agencies to take advantage of a turnkey “analytic cloud” solution to rapidly deliver a usable cloud computing environment that is highly scalable and supports the large-file requirements of government customers. Data Tactics’ experience with data archi-tecture, management and engineering solutions

provides advanced analytics for data extraction, resolution and link analysis, as well as artifact-based search and geospatial capabilities. When coupled with NetApp’s premier data storage plat-forms, NetApp and Data Tactics offer government agencies a robust and scalable big-data solution.

Dex Polizzi;[email protected]

Intergraph has announced that its upcoming Intergraph Geospatial 2013 release features a complete server offering to meet an organization’s enter-prise needs. The portfolio includes powerful tools for managing data, delivering web services, web mapping, on-demand geo-processing and workflow development and deployment. Utilizing a single web client, Intergraph has streamlined the experience throughout its server offerings. It is now simpler and more convenient for users to share maps and services with others inside and outside of the organization. Users will be able to build web maps and access services from any server solution from one modern, powerful web client. The new Geospatial Portal is a web application that is a configurable and custom-izable browser-based web portal for building

online applications. Geospatial Portal can be used by Intergraph products and/or other server products that support standard web services. This unified web client allows users to find data, build web apps, exploit data and deliver geospatial web applications.

Stephanie Deemer;[email protected]

Enterprise Portfolio Offers Powerful Data, Web Tools

Soyuz flight VS04 has launched the Pléiades 1B very-high-resolution optical satellite from the Guiana Space Center. The launch marks a new success for ESA, CNES and Arianespace, which jointly operate the launch base, less than a year after orbiting Pléiades 1A. Astrium Services will be the exclusive distributor of imagery from Pléiades 1A and 1B. Pléiades 1B was released from the launch vehicle near its final 694-km orbit, which it will reach within the next few days. The satellite will be phased 180 degrees with Pléiades 1A on the same orbit to form a true constellation offering daily revisits to any point on the globe. This daily revisit capability brings added value to users of satellite data products around the world. Being able to generate imagery anywhere in the world every day is vital for quick-response applications. With the Pléiades constellation, conflict and crisis zones or natural disaster areas will be viewable within hours to aid planning of relief and rescue operations. Daily revisits also allow close monitoring of work progress on civil engineering projects, mining activi-ties and industrial or military operations. And by bringing users twice as much imagery, the Pléiades satellites are ideal for mapping large areas at high resolu-tion, as images are acquired twice as fast to increase the chances of obtaining cloud-free views.

Jessi Dick;[email protected]

Satellite Constellation to Offer Daily Revisits to Any

Point

Solution Uses GIS Data in Google Earth Environment


INDUSTRY RASTER

Adapx, a provider of natural user interfaces for data capture, has released new speech and sketch interfaces to speed mission planning data capture with Google Earth, Command Post of the Future, and the Army’s Replay Application Framework. With speech and sketch interfaces from Adapx, soldiers can enter intelligence and planning data into existing C4ISR and C2 systems by simply sketching standard military symbols and speaking standard jargon. With the new speech and sketch interfaces, soldiers can point to a location on a touchscreen map and simply speak the name of a unit or an ISR observation. The Adapx software automatically creates an object

in the native ISR, planning or GIS database with the proper geospatial attributes. Sketched symbols become geo-registered MIL-STD 2525 symbols. Commanders can also add attributes to sketched objects by simply speaking as they sketch. A simple line becomes more when commanders say “main attack,” “company boundary,” or thousands of other natural commands as they draw. Adapx also provides Capturx Forms and GIS solutions to military and civilian teams for instantly capturing and sharing data on paper- and tablet-based forms and paper maps.

Sarah Robertson;[email protected]

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has awarded Booz Allen Hamilton eight major task orders to provide manage-ment and technical services through the Enterprise Support to Management and Resources for Technical Services (ESMARTS) contract. ESMARTS is an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract with a maximum value of $873 million, and will provide services to NGA through December 2016. Booz Allen provided similar support to NGA under the prede-cessor SMARTS contract. Through ESMARTS, Booz Allen will support NGA in developing geospatial intel-ligence capabilities that create new value and improve mission part-ners’ access to data. Booz Allen will help implement NGA’s stra-tegic initiatives regarding content, customer service, open information technology environment, analytic capabilities, workforce, workplace and functional management. Since the IDIQ award in May, Booz Allen has won eight prime contractor awards, totaling $295 million, to support different mission direc-torates and management offices within NGA.

Carrie Lake;[email protected]

PCI Geomatics, a developer of geo-imaging software and systems, has released Geomatica 2013, the latest version of the company’s complete and integrated desktop image processing software featuring tools for remote sensing, digital photo-grammetry, geospatial analysis, map production, mosaicking and more. Geomatica 2013 adds perfor-mance improvements to streamline workflows.

Starting with “focus,” new, wizard-based workflows have been added for atmospheric correction that will allow users to automatically detect cloud and haze in imagery, which will make producing seam-less mosaics in cloud plagued areas more intuitive. In OrthoEngine, users will see improvements in handling large projects, including quality assur-ance panels that automatically update, ground

control point (and tie point) visualization, leading edge automated seamline generation, and the algorithms to match images to each other auto-matically through new automatic ground control collection algorithms that can achieve registration accuracies down to one-tenth of a pixel.

Kevin R. Jones;[email protected]

Image Processing Software Adds Performance Improvements

NGA Orders Enterprise

Management, Technical Support

Interfaces Speed Mission Planning Data Capture

TerraGo Technologies has released its new TerraGo Mobile for Android solution, as well as updated versions of its widely deployed TerraGo Publisher for ArcGIS, TerraGo Composer for Adobe Acrobat and TerraGo Toolbar offerings to facilitate advanced geospatial collabora-tion with anyone, anywhere in online or disconnected envi-ronments. TerraGo Mobile for Android is an easy-to-use, affordable solution that allows users of Android devices running version 3 or above to access and update intelligent, portable, interactive GeoPDF maps and imagery with georef-erenced notes, audio, photo, video and Web services. It also enables field data collection using geoforms that can be easily updated and shared with anyone, anywhere. In addition to the introduction of TerraGo

Mobile for Android, the latest versions of TerraGo Publisher for ArcGIS, TerraGo Composer for Adobe

Acrobat and TerraGo Toolbar, coupled with the new TerraGo Collaboration Manager, optimize the entire geospatial collaboration work-flow. The TerraGo Collaboration Manager, when used in conjunc-tion with the newest versions of TerraGo Publisher for ArcGIS and TerraGo Toolbar, streamlines the preparation of geospatial informa-tion specifically for desktop and TerraGo Mobile for Android users. Launched from within TerraGo Toolbar and TerraGo Publisher for ArcGIS, the TerraGo Collaboration Manager advances situational aware-

ness by promoting mobility and allowing user-created custom geoforms for field data capture.

Renee Wagner;[email protected]

Solutions Aid Collaboration in Disconnected Environments


Compiled by KMi Media Group staff

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Vice Admiral Kendall L. Card is a native of Fort Stockton, Texas. He earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineer-ing from Vanderbilt University in December 1977 and holds a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from U.S. Naval War College. He is also a graduate of U.S. Naval Test Pilot School.

From 1979 to 2006, Card served in various operational tours at sea, flying from the decks of USS Forrestal, USS America, USS Theodore Roosevelt, USS Saratoga and USS Enterprise. He com-manded Helicopter Anti-submarine Squadron 15, USS Ranier and USS Abraham Lincoln. Under his command Abraham Lincoln participated in Operations Enduring Freedom, Southern Watch and Iraqi Freedom as part of a record-setting nine-and-a-half month deployment, as well as Operation Unified Assistance in support of the Tsunami relief efforts in Sumatra, Indonesia.

Card was selected as a flag officer in 2006. He has served as director, Command Control Systems, North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command; commander, Task Forces 51/58/59/151/158; commander, Expeditionary Strike Group Three; and director of concepts, strategies, and integra-tion for information dominance. He was appointed to the rank of vice admiral in June 2011 as he assumed office as deputy chief of naval operations for information dominance, and the 64th direc-tor of naval intelligence.

Card was interviewed by GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly.

Q: How would you define the missions and responsibilities of your several positions?

A: Actually, I wear four hats. I serve as the deputy chief of naval operations [DCNO] for information dominance [N2/N6], director of naval intelligence, deputy department of the Navy chief infor-mation officer for the Navy [D-DONCIO] [Navy], and leader of the Information Dominance Corps [IDC].

As the DCNO, I serve as the principal adviser to the CNO on matters related to information, command and control, net-works, cyber, intelligence, space, electronic warfare, and maritime domain awareness; the IDC; and oceanography and knowledge of the environment. I also serve as resource sponsor for related sys-tems and programs. With my staff of approximately 600 officer, enlisted, civilian and contractor personnel, we manage over 200 programs and a yearly budget of approximately $14.1 billion.

The ID portfolio also includes a robust assortment of meteo-rology and oceanography international/interagency partnerships that provide the warfighter with superior knowledge of the physi-cal environment in support of the full spectrum of naval warfare.

As deputy CIO, I work closely with DONCIO Terry Halverson and my Marine Corps counterpart. I am involved in a number of IT issues and initiatives that directly impact capability develop-ment. These include: aligning Navy network, communications, intelligence, space and IO programs across enterprise systems; ensuring interoperability with service, joint, national, and civil programs and policies; and ensuring compliance with DoD information management/information technology architecture requirements and high level strategic guidance. Among the issues we are actively working are data center consolidations and achiev-ing IT efficiencies throughout the Navy.

As the director of naval intelligence, I am the uniformed head of U.S. naval service intelligence elements and the Navy’s senior official within the defense and national intelligence communities regarding intelligence authorities and responsibilities. I have an incredible team of analysts and technicians that inform the devel-opment of the Navy’s future capabilities to meet the full spectrum of maritime missions, including fighting and winning any and all conflicts.

Finally, as leader of the IDC I am working with my fellow flag officers and SESs to develop a workforce that can best employ our capabilities. We have more than 52,000 officer, enlisted and civil-ian professionals in our IDC, from the fields of information war-fare, naval intelligence, information professional, oceanography and space.

Vice Admiral Kendall L. CardDeputy Chief of Naval Operations for

Information DominanceDirector of Naval Intelligence


Intelligence DominatorMastering the Information Domain Is Critical to Navy Success

Q&AQ&A

Q: What is your definition and vision of “information dominance” for the Navy in specific and the US military in general?

A: Whether characterized as cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, networks, communications, space, meteorol-ogy, oceanography, or electronic warfare, the Navy is inextrica-bly and irreversibly dependent on information. In fact, I would argue that information lies at the core of the Navy’s missions of sea control, power projection, deterrence and forward presence. The degree to which we master and control information will yield either a decisive operational advantage or an incapacitating weak-ness. Therefore, mastering the information domain is critical to the Navy’s success. We refer to that mastery as information dom-inance—the advantage gained from fully integrating the Navy’s information functions, capabilities and resources to optimize decision making and maximize war fighting effects.

Q: What role do Navy network-enabled ISR efforts play in the quest for information dominance?

A: ISR is critically important to the Navy’s future. It ampli-fies kinetic combat capabilities and enables expanded maneuver space, new operational and strategic options, asymmetric oper-ational effects, and capability for dominant control of the bat-tlespace. We can maintain a decisive information advantage over potential adversaries by acquiring, fielding, managing and oper-ating the optimum mix of netted maritime ISR systems and sup-porting capabilities, while fully leveraging other service, joint and national capabilities. These network-enabled ISR capabilities will enable more effective decision making within the Navy and com-batant commands by overcoming key information gaps about enemy intentions and facilitating more timely and precise target-ing data for joint and naval weapon systems.

Network enablement of ISR is crucial in achieving informa-tion dominance. There are phenomenal advances occurring in the digital world today. Data systems are able to accumulate, intelli-gently process and model vast amounts of information and make it dynamically available, easily retrievable and visually intuitive. To achieve this capability, we need to operate numerous sensors from various platforms in different domains. We need systems that can carry data, fuse it with other relevant information, glean the critical intelligence, and rapidly distribute that intelligence. We also have to protect this netted information from “non-sub-scribers;” otherwise, it is not much of an advantage.

Q: What do you see as the key operational constructs needed to achieve information dominance?

A: Our efforts to advance Navy information dominance are sup-ported by three key operational constructs: assured C2, bat-tlespace awareness and integrated fires. Assured C2 is the unfettered ability to exchange orders with subordinates, con-duct targeting and strikes as part of the joint force, and assess the result of those strikes. Battlespace awareness [BA] involves leveraging persistent surveillance and in-depth knowledge of the battlespace—to include the electromagnetic spectrum—to gain a deep understanding of the adversary. It delivers penetrating knowledge of the capabilities and capacity, as well as the intent of our adversaries.

Information dominance enables the Navy to use networks, cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum to exploit and attack the vulnerabilities of adversaries to achieve kinetic and non-kinetic effects [i.e., fires]. Integrated fires is merely the integration of non-kinetic or electromagnetic strike options with traditional kinetic fires to deliver desired effects. Combined, these three constructs both enable and are enabled by information dominance.

Q: What is the Navy’s strategy for leveraging cyberspace?

A: The CNO provided straightforward guidance in his Sailing Directions. Specifically he stated, “Cyberspace will be opera-tionalized with capabilities that span the electromagnetic spec-trum—providing superior awareness and control when and where we need it.”

In keeping with CNO’s direction, the Navy has expanded operations in and through cyberspace to achieve and maintain an operational advantage. Navy Cyber Power 2020 was drafted to codify the Navy’s strategy for leveraging cyberspace in order to sustain U.S. maritime superiority and deliver this advantage. To ensure success, a comprehensive approach was presented across four focus areas:

• Integratedoperations: Fully integrate Navy cyberspace operations in support of joint force objectives

• Optimizedcyberworkforce: Drive Navy and joint cyberspace operations with an effectively recruited, trained and positioned workforce

• TechnologyInnovation: Leverage industry, academia and joint partners to rapidly update Navy cyberspace capabilities to stay ahead of the threat

• PPBEandAcquisitionReform:Enhance cyber-budgeting and acquisition to meet the Navy’s cyber-operational needs

Implementation of several strategic initiatives in each of these focus areas will ensure the realization of Navy’s vision: cyberspace operations that provide Navy and joint commanders with an operational advantage by enabling access to cyberspace and assured C2, preventing strategic surprise in cyberspace, and delivering decisive cyber-effects.

Q: What are some of the special challenges in information dominance facing the Navy as a result of its reliance on the RF portion of the electromagnetic spectrum?

A: Foundational to addressing the challenges we face is our abil-ity to use the electromagnetic [EM] spectrum for various pur-poses such as communications, navigation, radar operations, targeting, sensing, and kinetic and non-kinetic effects. We depend on freedom of action in the EM spectrum to succeed.

The EM spectrum has historically been viewed as an unlim-ited resource to which U.S. naval forces have unfettered access, but reality is quite different. The EM spectrum is a globally finite and scarce resource, and access by U.S. naval forces is tested continuously.

Assured EM spectrum access is vital to maintaining our national security, military effectiveness, and our responsiveness to events at home and abroad. The spectrum is challenged by


potential adversaries [contested] through multiple means such as jamming, by peaceful commercial practices such as cellular communication providers [interference], and by friendly mili-tary forces competing to use the same bandwidth for multiple purposes [congested].

As mentioned earlier, our operational constructs for infor-mation dominance are assured C2 and battlespace aware-ness that allow for sustained integrated fires across the full range of maritime warfare. These three fundamental facets will posture the Navy to maneuver and engage future oppo-nents at the nexus of the maritime and information domains. When all three facets are achieved, they provide Navy com-manders with the ability to operate freely in the information domain, and make decisions well inside the adversary’s decision cycle.

To achieve information dominance through our operations in the EM spectrum, we will realign our capabilities and tac-tics from individual units sensing, visualizing and allocating resources in the EM spectrum, to fleets and battle forces col-lectively achieving C2 of our activities in an automated fashion. This will require us to reengineer our concepts, our weapons and our battle management systems, as well as further train our people.

Q: What is your assessment of the current state and future role of Navy electronic warfare [EW] programs?

A: The development of IDC warfighters and the non-kinetic capabilities we bring to the fight are the most important goals in the N2/N6 portfolio. Within the complex list of actions we must accomplish to realize our mission, EW is one area in which we have firmly established positive momentum. Our strategy is to recapitalize aging systems to meet new threats, while we con-tinue to invest in advanced EW battle management solutions. Although we have made significant strides, our work is far from complete; we are working hard to get new systems out to the fleet faster, while making sure that they remain scalable and have open architectures that are easy to upgrade.

Our EW programs include the following:

• SurfaceElectronicWarfareImprovementProgram, an evolutionary acquisition program to upgrade the existing AN/SLQ-32[V] system through a modular, open-system approach

• Nulka, a quick reaction offboard electronic countermeasure decoy to defeat advanced radar homing anti-ship missiles

• AdvancedOffboardElectronicWarfare, which provides long endurance, offboard countermeasures for use in next generation coordinated EW missions against current and future anti-ship missile threats

• NextGenerationJammer[NGJ], the follow-on to ALQ-99, which is the legacy EA-6B and EA-18G jamming system. NGJ is a podded system carried on the EA-18G Growler,

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which will use active electronically scanned array technology to provide full-spectrum dominance to naval and joint forces.

Q: Given increasing reliance on sensor programs for intelligence, how are you working to respond to the issues of storing, analyzing and disseminating the massive amounts of data being produced?

A: Comprehensive knowledge of the adversary and the physi-cal and virtual environments is a critical enabler of assured C2, BA and integrated fires. The data sensed around the world and around the clock by Navy ships, submarines, aircraft and shore stations must help us develop and maintain that enabling knowledge. This point underpins and gives meaning to our work aimed at building-out not only ISR sensors, but also a resilient and responsive architecture for quickly analyzing and disseminating the data generated by those sensors, as well as storing the data for long-term analysis and building data bases.

Like the other members of the Department of Defense and intelligence community, we are conscious of the many issues and challenges associated with storing, disseminating and ana-lyzing a massively large and incredibly diverse body of sensed data under disconnected, intermittent and limited telecommu-nications conditions in the face of an increasingly sophisticated and significant cyber threat. Several of our current and planned efforts are squarely aimed at effectively addressing those issues and challenges.

First, we will be smart and selective in the way we exercise C2 over the sensing, analysis and dissemination operations carried out by Navy forces. Rather than seeking to “collect it all” or “col-lect for the sake of collecting,” we will instead bring our capabili-ties to bear against the right target sets at the right times, in the right places, and for the right reasons. Achieving this focus will involve a renewed emphasis on the planning and direction portion of the joint intelligence process, a stronger partnership between intelligence and operations, and an intensified effort to implement combat-effective ISR mission management.

Second, we will employ automation in a manner that reduces the processing “overhead” at the sensing, analysis and dissem-ination points throughout the architecture. We will invest in automation technology solutions that allow us to pre-process actionable data at or as close as possible to the forward-deployed collection platforms. This approach will allow us to focus the flow of actionable information generated by multiple sensors and min-imize the burden on bandwidth. By early separation of actionable data from multiple sources, we “save” the rest of the data for pro-cessing at our convenience when we can both more efficiently process and transport the data.

Third, we will tag and then ingest collected and pre-processed data into a Navy Tactical Cloud [NTC] that is interoperable with the DoD Joint Information Enterprise [JIE] and IC Information Technology Environment [ITE]. The NTC will build existing mar-itime-focused, shore-based C2ISR data and analysis centers, and extend to our afloat units. It will leverage smart data, identity and access management, and attribute-based access control solu-tions while delivering the data, utility and storage services needed for big data analytics and other advanced analytical techniques across shore and afloat environments.

Focusing collection operations, pre-processing collected data and ingesting pre-processed data into the DoD JIE/IC ITE-interoperable NTC are necessary but insufficient steps. In order to achieve success, we must also reach out to our mission part-ners, most notably our fellow IC members, sister services, allies and non-governmental organizations. We will collaborate with them, making good use of the talents and services they offer and, in turn, extend our talents and services to them. This principle is driving our fourth effort, one that emphasizes decisive engage-ment with the key actors who, like us, are working aggressively to build-out cloud capabilities

Q: How would you characterize the role of GEOINT in naval intelligence operations?

A: Geospatial intelligence is a key capability in the Navy. We use both commercial GEOINT as well as classified sources to support fleet and combatant commanders. We have established a Navy GEOINT Office at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to better coordinate these assets.

Let me give you a few examples of how we use GEOINT in naval intelligence operations.

First, like all services and agencies, we use classified GEOINT systems to monitor activity in specific areas across the globe. Those capabilities provide our fleet commanders with intelli-gence for timely operational decisions. That information is also fed into systems such as the Distributed Common Ground System [DCGS]-Navy for further analysis and to be merged with other intelligence sources. Through DCGS, we also make those prod-ucts available to other members of the intelligence community.

As for commercial GEOINT, we use electro-optical sources to develop safety of navigation products such as paper maps and electronic charts. We also use commercial GEOINT to monitor environmental conditions such as ice flow, which supports the National Ice Center.

Q: What are some of the new technologies the Navy is using to better understand the world’s oceans, sea floor, weather, and other factors, and how can they improve naval operations?

A: Our naval oceanography community continues to lead the way in operational use of space, manned and unmanned systems to characterize the physical environment. We operate a fleet of six multi-mission survey ships outfitted with the finest oceano-graphic survey equipment in the world. Next year, we will place an improved version of our survey ship into service, which will include greater flexibility for the launch and recovery of oceano-graphic sensors, including unmanned vehicles. Although manned systems and ships will always be a part of the effort, much of the data required to support accurate characterization and prediction of the physical environment can be captured with long-duration, low-cost unmanned systems that persistently sample the atmo-sphere and the oceans. In addition, we closely cooperate with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the Air Force, and international partners for advanced satellite sensors that provide critical data to our atmospheric and oceanographic modeling efforts.

The art and science of modeling and predicting large scale atmospheric and oceanic features has never been better. As a


result of our investments in high performance computing, we are able to produce the only global ocean model and DoD’s only information assured atmospheric model. As a global force, it is imperative we understand weather and ocean conditions around the world to not only improve war fighting effectiveness, but also to ensure the safety of our sailors aboard our ships, aircraft and submarines.

Collectively, enhanced data collections, improvements in large scale models, and increases in computing power enable us to pre-dict the environment at increasingly finer scales. Coupled with tactical decision aids that forecast weapon system performance in those predicted environments, we are able to optimize our sen-sors and weapons systems while exploiting enemy vulnerabilities. The result is a much improved, and much more informed, deci-sion process for the warfighter.

Q: How can industry improve in supporting naval intelligence? Would changes in acquisition procedures be useful?

A: Clearly we face a lot of challenges, both technical and budget-ary. We need industry’s help in developing solutions for counter-ing future threats, both conventional kinetic threats and those within the information domain. As we tighten our belts in this fiscal climate, we still must find a way to thwart the increasing scope and complexity of threats in all environments. So we need industry to help us maintain our technological edge, quickly pro-viding state-of-the-art solutions that can be updated even more quickly through either software upgrades, or by changing out-puts “on the fly” as sensors pick up new or changed parameters from the adversary.

With our ability to resource solutions constrained by flat or falling top-line budgets, we cannot afford boutique, one-off solu-tions, no matter how good they may be. Instead, they must be interoperable, sustainable and upgradeable throughout a lengthy life cycle. Nothing ever gets replaced as soon as we would like.

With the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services [CANES] program, for example, we are dismantling proprietary, stovepiped networks across the fleet and installing open architec-tures. In terms of our ISR platforms, we want to think of those as merely “trucks” that carry capabilities where we need them and offload data where there is a user or terminal in the footprint. We need the output of any sensor or tool to be transmitted, manipu-lated and applied not only across the Navy, but across the entire joint force. That sensor or application cannot ride on a one-of-a-kind network and manipulation of the data cannot be limited to a proprietary system. That approach is neither affordable nor prac-tical for success in our future operating environment.

Finally, we certainly realize that N2/N6 does not have all the answers. Industry is often best positioned to see the application of best practices across DoD and the IC firsthand. Sharing those lessons learned with us, and keeping the lines of communication open through participation in industry/Navy joint forums like our annual industry day and other DoD/industry gatherings, is a great way to share perspectives and ensure common understanding of shared concerns.

Q: How has your extensive experience in operational tours shaped your approach to leading the fight for information dominance?

A: With my background in naval aviation, and being blessed with numerous command positions, I came to this job with career-long experience as a consumer and beneficiary of intelligence and information capabilities. In my first job as a flag officer, I had the good fortune to serve as the J6 for NORAD/U.S. Northern Command, where I gained a wealth of experience and knowledge of our communications systems. Before this job as DCNO, I was in a more junior position on the N2/N6 staff where I led the Warfare Integration Division in managing our programs of record. So my operational experience as a consumer helped me to understand the needs of the fleet, and my NORTHCOM and OPNAV exposure to the broader fields of information dominance gave me the back-ground I needed to hit the ground running. Fortunately, I didn’t have to learn it all from scratch!

Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?

A: The importance of information superiority cannot be over stressed. Navy leadership has recognized this and has now ele-vated information dominance as a warfare pillar on par with the traditional warfare areas—surface, aviation and subsurface.

Our draft document, the Navy Strategy for Achieving Information Dominance, which will be released soon, frames our approach and guides the development of our information capabilities as well as their integration in the fleet. It reinforces our consolidation of information-related programs, resources and manpower under a single sponsor, and accelerates the work accomplished over the last three years to integrate information dominance into our Navy as a core war fighting competency. Finally, it bolsters our efforts to master cyberspace and the elec-tromagnetic spectrum, just as we have mastered the physical domains of the maritime battlespace. The strategy focuses on the three fundamental facets: assured command and control, bat-tlespace awareness and integrated fires. Through this strategy, the Navy set its sights on attaining decision superiority for fleet, joint and coalition commanders at multiple levels, and lays the practical foundations for dominating the information domain.

I would also like to point out that information dominance could not be possible without the hard work and efforts of the outstanding men and women who comprise the IDC. The Navy now has a dedicated community of professionals trained and edu-cated in the “arts” of information superiority. This IDC is likewise creating its own war fighting culture consistent with the Navy’s historic traditions, but focused on mastering non-kinetic war-fare in a non-physical, man-made domain. Our cadre of informa-tion dominance warriors is steaming full-speed ahead in fulfilling the core tenets of Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert’s sailing directions: war fighting first, operate forward and being ready.

Finally, and most important for this audience, we are count-ing on industry to help lead the way in our quest to be the very best in information war fighting. Being second best in the world is just not good enough—we need to be inside every possible adversary’s decision cycle, and our commanders must have the fused, precise and security-assured information to deliver the right effect at the right time. We count on industry, every day, to quickly deliver the technologically superior systems of systems to shave those minutes and seconds needed to be number one in the world. Thanks! O


By JoerG F. herrmann

a ComBInatIon oF new teChnoloGIes In earth oBserVatIon and teleCommunICatIon oFFers near-real-tIme marItIme monItorInG.

Considering that more than 90 percent of the world’s trade goods and more than 70 percent of global crude oil today are transported by seaborne traffic, maritime security is of utmost importance. From about 800 million tons of loaded cargo transported on the oceans in 1955, maritime traffic has increased to 8 billion tons in 2007. Maritime transportation today is one of the most globalized indus-tries in terms of operation and ownership.

With the growth of maritime traffic, the pressure on the security of the world’s oceans is increasing: Not only does the likelihood of accidents and associated environmental damages increase, but ship traffic is also increasingly becoming the target of piracy, organized crime and terrorism. Moreover, illegal maritime activities such as unauthorized fishing, drug trafficking, weapon movement/prolifera-tion and illegal immigration increase continuously.

In particular, piracy has been a growing concern in the inter-national community in recent years. As the number of attacks rises, piracy hotspots spread and the damages done to commer-cial organizations and maritime trade are increasing exponentially. The International Maritime Organization reported 489 actual or attempted acts of piracy and armed robbery against ships in 2010, an increase of 20.4 percent compared to the previous year.

Some of the world’s busiest shipping routes in Africa (Red Sea, Somalia and Gulf of Aden) and Asia (Straits of Malakka and Singapore; areas off the coasts of Bangladesh, Indonesia and the South China Sea) are the hotspots of these criminal attacks. To make matters worse, “success has bred success.” Pirates are adapting their

methods and strategies to anti-piracy measures by moving out fur-ther from land to avoid patrol ships, by using mother ships to extend their reach and by increasingly deploying sophisticated technologies.

In times of worldwide economic pressure and increasing com-petition in the maritime transportation domain, ship operators are facing cost surges due to the piracy issue. Piracy activities raise insur-ance fees and ship operating costs, and generate additional costs caused by the necessity of re-routing ships. One recent study has estimated the total cost of maritime piracy in 2010 at $7 billion-$12 billion per year, including ransoms, insurance premiums, re-routing ships, security equipment, naval forces, prosecutions, piracy deter-rent organizations and the cost to regional economies.

Maritime activities are also increasingly expanding into the Arctic regions, with growing ship traffic in the ice-infested waters of the North Eastern and North Western passages, and oil and gas platforms set up to exploit the huge resource reservoirs of the Arctic.

For all these activities, shipping and insurance companies, oil, gas and mineral firms, national and private security forces, and envi-ronmental protection agencies require timely and accurate informa-tion to ensure the safety and efficiency of maritime activities around the globe.

dePendaBle monItorInG

Two main factors drive the complexity of ocean monitoring. The first factor is the required global coverage—that is, access to


any point on the globe’s oceans at any time. The second is timeliness: the

rapid availability of processed and actionable infor-mation. Today there is no realistic architecture or net-

work of architecture for achieving an area-wide open ocean surveillance (OOS) that can reliably meet these

requirements. Currently existing capacities use coastal radars, sonars, air-

borne or ship-based sensors, AIS (for merchant and fishing ves-sels), VTS (for port and coastal control), LRIT (for merchant ships over long distances), and VMS (for fishing vessels on a global level). These coastal methods of surveillance are limited in their surveil-lance range (less than 20 nautical miles), and are not able to pro-vide a consistent and global situational awareness of the world’s shipping lanes.

Earth observation satellites—both electro-optical systems and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites—are increasingly being used to augment the wide-area observation capacities. In particu-lar, SAR satellites provide dependable global acquisition capabilities,

as they operate independent of cloud coverage and illumination conditions.

Furthermore, SAR data lends itself to automatic ship detection techniques, as vessels typically have a very distinct radar return sig-nal, allowing reliable detection and even identification. SAR data analysis not only provides information about the size and kind of ship, but also delivers information on the ship’s heading and speed of movement.

Therefore, a reliable system for ship detection and identifica-tion would be to compare ship location information derived from SAR satellite data with automatic identification signal (AIS) infor-mation. Currently, commercial SAR satellites such as TerraSAR-X, RADARSAT and COSMO-SkyMed are widely used to monitor the world’s oceans, particularly in the area of ship detection and track-ing, oil spill detection and sea ice monitoring. They are an impor-tant complement to existing shore-based and airborne monitoring approaches.

A next development step is to incorporate AIS receivers onboard the SAR satellites, which enable the integration of the


AIS information into the SAR data collect. This is foreseen for the Spanish PAZ satellite planned for launch in 2013, and planned for the German TerraSAR-X Next Generation (TerraSAR-X2) to be orbited in 2016. Thus a fast and reliable detection of ves-sels without an AIS or attempting to spoof the system will easily be possible.

The TerraSAR-X2 mission will also be optimized to offer the best combination of swath width and resolution for ship detec-tion. With a large swath of up to 400 km, maritime areas can be monitored comprehensively. The spatial resolution of down to 25 cm enables the recognition and identification of different vessels and boats with regards to their size, ship class and even type.

Another way to improve maritime observation is the satel-lite’s revisit time enabling frequent observation, reliable ship tracking and, if required, zoom-in capabilities for further investi-gation. This can be achieved by a constellation approach placing several satellites in the same orbit, which enables intra-day revisit times.

The envisaged WorldSAR Alliance of TerraSAR-X2 satellites will be a pioneering alliance of satellite system owners of different nations with the ability to access the collection capacities of the entire constellation, facilitating revisit times of less than 10 hours. Also the implementation of multi-mission scenarios (including TerraSAR-X, PAZ, RADARSAT and Sentinel data) offers a good solu-tion to improved coverage and revisit times.

InFormatIon latenCy

Besides the revisit time, the determining factor for the timeli-ness of maritime surveillance applications is the rapid delivery of the data to the end user. In other words, the information latency counts.

Reliable OOS requires an availability of fully processed data end-to-end within 15 to 20 minutes for any shipping area worldwide. With the current network of ground stations, these timeliness require-ments are met only for the vicinity of the stations, and leave areas with higher information latency.

For a large part of the oceans’ surface, the delay between image acquisition and information provision leads to a data latency making the information no more actionable. A closely coordinated network of more than 20 ground stations, strategically placed in both onshore and offshore locations worldwide, would be needed to cover 90 per-cent of the world shipping lanes entirely.

A more realistic solution to fill the gaps with poor information latency is to combine existing ground station networks with what might be called “virtual ground stations over water.” Such a vir-tual receiving network could be established by a data relay system in space, by using telecommunication satellites in geostationary orbit. These relay satellites could provide data transfer from low earth orbit satellites to the ground for orbits not accessible by direct receiving stations.

Such a system already exists with the U.S. Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, and Europe is currently implementing the so-called SpaceDataHighway through a public-private partnership between the European Space Agency and Astrium Services. Such a system facilitates near-real-time bi-directional data transfer, provid-ing unprecedented performance options for satellite tasking and data download. The SpaceDataHighway takes advantage of a cutting-edge optical laser inter-satellite link technology that enables data relay capabilities with up to 1.8 Gigabits per second.

The future of a near-continuous global OOS in near-real-time will be the combination of novel technologies in Earth observa-tion and telecommunication. Improved data quality and collection capability as provided by the next-generation radar satellites will come into their own right when combined with a space-based data relay system.

This enables the tasking of satellites only shortly before they enter the imaging area, optimizing the satellite programming with the latest target area information and facilitating rapid response to unusual activities on the ground that require further investigation. Near-real-time imaging would be extended beyond the ground sta-tion footprints allowing for a more tactical observation approach.

The high data rates and large data transfer volumes provided by systems such as the SpaceDataHighway bring true meaning to the term near-real-time data, also outside of the footprints of exist-ing ground stations. Together such systems will inaugurate the first commercial global wide-area OOS service capable of meet-ing a better than 20-minute requirement for delivery of actionable information. O

Joerg F. Herrmann is senior vice president of SAR strategies, Astrium GmbH.



Transforming Data into Decisions

BIG DATA FOR DEFENSE & HOMELAND SECURITY

January 29 & 30, 2013 | Alexandria, VA

Dr. Reggie Brothers, DASD for Research, OSD (AT&L)

Dr. Daniel Gerstein, Deputy Under Secretary for S&T, DHS

Dr. Ann Carbonell, Director, Information Integration Office, NGA

Dr. Carey Schwartz, PSC Lead, Office of Naval Research

REGISTER: BigDataSymposium.dsigroup.org


Astheintelligencecommunity(IC)preparesforthepros-pectofsubstantialbudgetreductions,thereislittledoubtthatitisgoingtohavetodothenation’sintelligencebusinessonamuchtighteraccountthanithasbeenaccustomedtosince9/11.Only the director of national intelligence (DNI) is in apositiontoorchestratetherationalizationrequired,toensurethe IC and the military services apply resources responsi-bly to maintain strategic and operational relevance—as anenterprise.

Itisclearboththatwarfundingisgoingaway,andthatsig-nificant budget cuts in intelligence programs and operatingbudgetswill happen. Further, the looming threat of seques-trationmakestheIC’scollectiveresponsemoreimportantintermsofriskandcapabilitymanagementacrossthecommu-nity.Asawhole,theICmustmovetoanintegratedenterprisestrategyforbalancedapplicationofresourcedollarstoensurethatintelligenceconsumersandthenationarewellserved.

While remaining fiscally accountable, the IC must con-tinue to play a central role in producing the critical inputsthatimpactourforeignpolicyoutcomes,operatinginacom-plexandopaqueworld.Intermsofintegration,therearethreemajor categories: strategic-operational, technical researchanddevelopment,andintra-community.

Theintegrationofpeople,technology,researchandtrain-ingbestenablestheenterprisetoachieveoutcomesinadeclin-ingfiscalenvironmentwhilecontinuingtoaddressthethreatsandopportunitiesahead.Anenterpriseapproachwillresultintighterintelligencecouplingwiththeactionelements,opera-tionalandstrategicleadershipandnationaldecision-makers.

the IntellIGenCe CommunIty must moVe to an InteGrated enterPrIse strateGy For BalanCed aPPlICatIon oF resourCes.

Integrating the Intel Enterprise

By daVId Pendall




As a regional command senior intelligence officer in Afghanistan, I saw firsthand the integrative support from our Department of Defense combat support agencies, and the incredible difference the forward integrated elements made in terms of speed of content deliv-ery, leveraging of best practices, and providing responsive reachback to full agency support. So did our commanders.

Operational integration must be achieved within decision-mak-ing nodes—be they in the active theaters of war, in our combat-ant commands, or with our national leadership. If a commander or other decision-maker is comfortable taking decisions without an appropriate level of insight provided by the intelligence enterprise, the enterprise has failed. A failed enterprise will be at risk of fur-ther decrements as compared with other non-intelligence related fiscal requirements. Eleven years of war have demonstrated the importance of integration.

ContInuInG PartnershIPs

The strategic outcomes enabled by the IC’s support, such as the bin Laden raid and numerous other strategic disruptions of our ene-mies, are known. None of them could have occurred without close coupling with action elements—be they combat formations, special operations forces elements, agency operatives, multi-national part-ners or domestic law enforcement professionals. If ever there was a time to have the consumer advocate for the service or capability pro-vider, this is it.

Without a close and continuing partnering, there will be a wid-ening gap and lack of appreciation of the intelligence enterprise and its core role in enabling mission command and decision-making processes. When lives are at stake, mission outcomes are in play, and policy decisions and capability investment priorities are on the table, a voice from the consumer and receiver of intelligence will far out-weigh the testimony of senior IC leadership.

Research and development funding and technical or scientific drivers of future requirements must be binned into coherent pro-grams to attain the best returns on our declining investment dol-lars. The IC must leverage communities beyond the U.S. intelligence enterprise—including homeland security, the global IT industry, foreign security partnerships, commercial enterprise and academia. Intelligence, for all its wondrous and sometimes magical technolog-ical capability, is still the world’s second oldest profession, and many others are doing it to us, and as well as us. It is not rocket science, though rocket science is a key enabler.

I would look to Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, Twitter and Facebook as successful competitive information industry players for bringing many aspects of what we formerly held close as intel-ligence tradecraft to common usage in today’s society. Rather than viewing the R&D or technical budgets as a zero sum game with each of the other enterprise partners, the community (under DNI over-sight) should embrace a cost sharing or cooperative budget stance, including collaborative outreach to achieve the required efficiencies.

In the end, remaining ahead of the technology curve can come from advances in technologic understanding, better application of tradecraft or, more likely, a combination of the two. Either way, working out cooperative agreements in the enterprise and with external players is both necessary and smart. The agency that believes it has both the technical expertise and the budget support to continue to do this “in house” is likely to find itself mortgaging its future in a very risky market.

The enterprise team must also strengthen itself through a diver-sity of assignments and fundamental experiences. The core element the intelligence enterprise requires in the near term is to identify and position those intelligence leaders who demonstrate the capac-ity to work in any environment and the ability to rapidly team with a diverse group of operators, decision-makers and other intelligence professionals. The hallmark of a high performing interagency intel-ligence team has been repeatedly demonstrated in our ops-intel fusion centers, niche task force command centers and special oper-ations headquarters.

InteraGenCy teamInG

If the intelligence community must shed a sizeable portion of its contracted skilled employees and reduce administrative positions, the one area the IC must not weaken, but rather reinforce, is the deployment of its best practitioners into interagency teaming envi-ronments, with hard core production and content delivery expec-tations. In the end, this is what builds IC leaders of the future and sustains a premium skilled workforce that is capable of produc-ing against both time-sensitive and downstream strategic critical requirements.

To be sure, the DNI must gain consensus toward the enterprise resource strategy, as the Defense, State and Homeland Security departments and the FBI each have the ability to opt out in prac-tical ways, given the current distribution of the intelligence bud-get accounts. Even establishing an enterprise IT strategy has to date proven difficult. Beltway pressures and department or agency “ricebowl” management obsessions are certain to rise and attack this necessary approach. But while hard, it does not mean impossible.

Intelligence must remain an integral part of the decision appa-ratus and be understood as an essential element in the 21st century complex security environment. As the IC moves forward with a cer-tain decline in resources and looming austerity in fiscal outlooks, the opportunity to right-size the workforce and programs through embracing an enterprise view is here.

The IC has the capacity, insight, leadership and access to key stakeholders to innovate to a new standard of intelligence support that will continue to produce the outcomes required for decision and action from the tactical through strategic levels. To be clear, the IC has a solemn responsibility to provide the best insight and per-spective on a myriad of complex and often unsolvable dilemmas for our nation, and to the men and women who go into harm’s way to execute the actions and decisions taken by our national and senior leadership.

An IC enterprise approach toward investment and resource employment is critical to reaching the stated security ends for our nation. To do less will achieve less—and we cannot afford that as an outcome. O

David Pendall in an active duty military intelligence officer with multiple operational deployments, as well as service at the COCOM and IC level, supporting senior uniformed and civilian leadership.


January 21-23, 2013Defence Geospatial IntelligenceLondon, U.K.www.wbresearch.com

February 11-13, 2013International LiDAR Mapping ForumDenver, Colo.www.lidarmap.org

February 25-27, 2013Esri Federal GIS ConferenceWashington, D.C.www.esri.com

March 24-28, 2013American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Annual ConferenceBaltimore, Md.www.asprs.org

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aDvertisers inDex2013 Esri Federal GIS Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9www.esri.com/giffedcon2D3 Sensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19www.2d3sensing.comBAE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4www.baesystems.com/gxpDefense Strategies Institute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24http://bigdatasymposium.dsigroup.org

EMC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16www.emc.com/federalNetApp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2www.netapp.com/agilePAR Government Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7www.pargovernment.com

Compiled by KMi Media Group staffGIF RESOURCE CENTER

Geospatial Intelligence Forum publishes eight issues per year. For more information about advertising and a complete detailed editorial calendar please contact:

Scott Parker, Associate Publisher 301-670-5700 Ext. 135 or [email protected]

FEBRUARY ISSUE 11.1

Michael A. RodrigueDeputy Director, NGA

Special Section: NOAA and Commercial Remote Sensing

Features: ArcGIS, GEOINT Technology for Disasters, Open Source Software

Bonus Distribution:» Esri Federal GIS Conference

MARCH ISSUE 11.2

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn Director, DIA

Special Section: Information Technology for the Intelligence Community

Features: Actionable Intelligence, Human Geography, Hyperspectral Imaging

Bonus Distribution:» 2013 DIA Worldwide Mission Conference

APRIL ISSUE 11.3

Betty SappDirector, NRO

Special Section:NRO Agency Profile

Features: Electro-Optic Technology, Geospatial Collaboration, Space Industry Roundtable

Bonus Distribution:» National Space Symposium

2013 EDITORIAL PREVIEW


With over 15 years of combined expe-rience across Hexagon companies, Mladen Stojic has extensive experience in defin-ing and delivering market and customer facing geospatial products and solutions. Prior to leading the geospatial business at Intergraph, he was the senior vice president of product management and marketing at ERDAS.

Q: Tell us about Intergraph Geospatial 2013.

A: Intergraph is the first and only company in the world to simultaneously release a complete, robust and united portfolio of GIS, remote sensing and photogrammetry prod-ucts for desktop, server and web environ-ments. We have united all geospatial genres into a streamlined system, seamlessly deliv-ering geographic information from the desk-top to the server through the web.

Intergraph Geospatial 2013 provides all the tools necessary to complete projects on time, on budget while maintaining the high-est level of fidelity to our customers’ needs. This technology enables customers to dis-cover and exploit the wealth of GEOINT data from any source and share it rapidly, which will help any organization make smarter decisions.

Q: Why is this new product launch so significant?

A: It is significant for a couple of reasons. From data capture and fusion in an inte-grated environment to on-demand geo-pro-cessing and rapid production of maps to specification, we now deliver real-time intel-ligence to users whether they are on a desk-top or mobile device.

Customers now have the option to work with a single company across all their geo-spatial projects. Intergraph provides a united portfolio that contains the power and the depth required to do all of the tasks needed to get your job done. We offer streamlined workflows across disciplines, training and support from a single company and licens-ing from one vendor, which means less

hassle, and a complete portfolio from one partner.

Q: What is included in the Intergraph Geospatial 2013 release?

A: The united and highly comprehensive portfolio includes new releases of GeoMedia, ERDAS Imagine, LPS, ImageStation, ERDAS Apollo, GeoMedia Smart Client, GeoMedia Web Map, Geospatial Portal and Geospatial SDI.

GeoMedia is a powerful GIS manage-ment package that enables users to real-ize the maximum value of their geospatial resources. ERDAS Imagine incorporates geospatial image processing and analysis, remote sensing and GIS capabilities into a powerful, convenient package.

For photogrammetry, ImageStation enables users to rapidly georeference or orthorectify massive volumes of incoming spatial data. LPS is ideal for users who work with smaller quantities of raw imagery and varied types of data.

On the server, ERDAS Apollo is a com-prehensive data management, analysis, and delivery system. GeoMedia Smart Client enables all users within an organization to seamlessly integrate geographic changes into configurable workflows. GeoMedia WebMap enables easy manipulation of an enterprise’s geographic information. Geospatial Portal is a web application that acts as a client for spatial data infrastructure [SDI] services. Geospatial SDI is for providers that need to manage and serve secure or licensed infor-mation using standards-based web services.

Q: How is this different from other product releases?

A: The market has asked for a more ele-gant and streamlined approach to GIS. We have responded with a fresh and modern offering, with intuitive interfaces and orga-nization. Intergraph Geospatial 2013 rede-fines how workflows can be streamlined to improve productivity, lower training cost and increase utilization.

From an end-user perspective, we are seeing a renaissance in how technologies are moving toward web, mobile and tablet applications. We are seizing this new oppor-tunity by offering a new set of fresh and creative interfaces, smarter workflows and unexpected technologies that work for users globally.

Q: How will this new lifecycle approach benefit the warfighter and the defense and intelligence community at large?

A: No matter what is happening in today’s budgets climate, defense and intelligence organizations will always need access to the right geospatial data to aid national security, peacekeeping missions, natural disaster response, and more. In Intergraph Geospatial 2013, we have synthesized the core geospatial technologies to offer one integrated dynamic modeling environ-ment for creating spatial models. From sen-sors down to soldiers, we will better enable defense and intelligence agencies to make smarter decisions by discovering, exploit-ing and sharing—rapidly and securely—the wealth of information contained in multi-source geospatial content.

Q: How will this new offering help the global defense and intelligence community?

A: On a global scale, there will always be a need to protect populations against terror-ist threats, respond to catastrophic events, and deploy military units for multi-national operations. Instant access to accurate and detailed geospatial intelligence products will always drive global decision-making. The new offering enables global organizations to better meet complex mission requirements without compromising budgets. O

INDUSTRY INTERVIEW Geospatial Intelligence Forum

Mladen StojicVice President-Geospatial

Intergraph


February 2013Volume 11, Issue 1NEXT ISSUE

Insertion Order Deadline: January 18, 2013 • Ad Materials Deadline: January 25, 2013

Features:

Michael A. Rodrigue

Cover and in-depth interview with:

Deputy Director, NGA

Bonus DistRiButionESRI Federal GIS Conference

Washington, D.C., February 25-27, 2013

NOAA ProfileThe NOAA Office of Space Commercialization plays a major role in setting U.S. policy for commercial remote sensing.

Extending ArcGISA wide array of vendors is offering military/intelligence-focused extensions and software extensions for use with Esri’s industry-leaving GIS software.

Full Motion VideoStandards for image quality will be crucial to improving the intelligence value of full motion video.

Open Source SoftwareProjects such as the Mapstory.org website illustrate the potential value of open source software for geospatial research and analysis.

Disaster GEOINTThe government and industry response to Hurricane Sandy has again highlighted the value of GEOINT for coping with natural and other disasters.

www.baesystems.com/gxp

GXP XPLORER AND SOCET GXP. MAXIMIZE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY —FROM DISCOVERY TO EXPLOITATION.

Streamline your workflow from beginning to end with unparalleled search functionality, exploitation capabilities, and product creation for commercial and defense industries. Discover your data with GXP Xplorer. Search multiple data stores across an enterprise with a single query to locate imagery, terrain, text documents, and video. Exploit data using SOCET GXP® to create geospatial intelligence products with advanced feature extraction tools, annotations, and 3-D visualization for planning, analysis, and publication. Our Geospatial eXploitation Products give you the power to deliver actionable intelligence, when it counts.

Imagery courtesyof DigitalGlobe

CLIENT BAE Systems GXP

DESCRIPTION 2012 Discovery to Exploitation

PUBLICATION Geospatial Intelligence Forum

ISSUE September 2012

CONTACT Rachel Snyder, (858) 675-2850, [email protected]

ART DIRECTOR Laetitia Santore, (858) 395-3752, [email protected]

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