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Unfortunately, without a way to process and coordinate that flood of information, our strikes and our forces lose their effectiveness. The problem is that planners and intelligence analysts cannot keep pace with the information overload created by modern intelligence resources and communications systems. The solution is collaborative technologies, which create virtual teams of geographically distributed operations and intelligence planners. They have now become crucial, with the Defense Department's shrinking budgets, decreasing manpower, and increasing regional conflicts. A specific program to handle the battlefield information overload is Collaborative Contingency Targeting (CCT), which MITRE is developing for the Joint Staff. CCT allows targeting personnel and imagery analysts to coordinate in finding targets, deciding which ones to strike, and assessing damage after the strike by using a variety of web-based, commercial, and government software. The cornerstone of CCT is the SUN Microsystems "ShowME/SharedApp" collaboration tool. This tool allows one battlefield targeting organization to send out and share images that it sees with other targeting organizations on different battlefield levels. The shared imagery applications used by the different targeting groups are (1) a joint targeting tool called Rapid Application of Air Power and (2) image display and manipulation packages such as Electronic Light Table 7000 and MATRIX. Along with ShowMe/SharedApp, CCT uses an Internet Virtual Audio Tool, a multipoint chatter tool, a Netscape browser, a web site, a whiteboard, and an application that measures targets' angles, latitude, longitude, depth, and height. With these tools, the different targeting groups can retrieve and share identical target imagery either to develop new targets or to assess battle damage on attacked targets. As the participants simultaneously view and collaborate on this imagery, they can develop a consensus on strike objectives. The collaboration tools can also annotate the imagery with key information and choose and measure important targets. That is a vast improvement over the long and inaccurate previous way of coordinating targets by using facsimile, video teleconferencing, message traffic, and telephones. Sharing imagery applications works best over high-capacity, low-delay networks. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) operates the Secret Asynchronous Transfer Mode network for high-bandwidth and low-delay communications. CCT uses these networks. It is also experimenting with new collaborative techniques (using NT technology), which will allow CCT sessions and application sharing over less robust networks. Recently, CCT played a central role in the Silent Fury exercise. Target groups at U.S. Central Command, the U.S. Atlantic Command's Cruise Missile Support Activity, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), and 3rd Fleet assets in the Pacific used CCT to find and select targets in a hypothetical Persian Gulf conflict. As CCT has grown, so too has its government sponsorship: NIMA, the U.S. Navy Cruise Missile Office, and the Defense Intelligence Agency/Joint Intelligence Virtual Architecture are now joining the Joint Staff in supporting its further development. (The Department of Defense has approved this article for public release. However this approval does not imply Department of Defense endorsement of factual accuracy or opinion.) For more information, please contact Mike Sturm using the employee directory. |
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