Goal 3: Deliver Interoperable and Innovative Solutions at Scale
The urgent need to maintain custody of large numbers of mobile military targets simultaneously makes traditional collection tasking and management processes increasingly obsolete. We propose an alternative object-based collection management approach.
The emerging urgent mission need to maintain custody of large numbers of mobile military targets—simultaneously—makes the traditional collection tasking and management processes increasingly obsolete. Currently, these processes are fractionalized by individual intelligence sources and organized around static geographical areas of interest, making it difficult to provide persistent target custody. Increasing numbers of collection options further add to the complexity of the problem, as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and other collection mission managers struggle to identify and hand off targets between potential collectors.
We propose an alternative object-based collection management approach, aligned to current Intelligence Community and DoD governance and authorities but organized around specific target types, characteristics, and behaviors that potentially offer a more effective method of tasking and managing collection. The result would be a library of mini-collection strategies that could be dynamically applied as needed for the targets and conditions encountered. Controls could be identified within each strategy, which could activate, deactivate, or modify collection plans based on different scenarios to appropriately balance sensor resource utilization. This approach will enable effective management of collection tradeoffs between sensor types and access opportunities, diversifying collection plans and increasing the probability of meeting essential intelligence needs.
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