The US military has an amazing array of ways to put eyes on a target- Satellites, drones, sensors, and even the MKII human eyeball. The challenge is how to get the right picture to the right person, right when they need it. I remember the first time a Spectre gunship told me they had my team ID-ed by the GLINT tape on our headgear, and that there were hostiles headed our direction. They even kindly offered to blow them to Hell. That was an amazing jump in situational awareness and operational effectiveness. The Army's Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS-A) has gone a step further and taken out the middle man. They can now relay real-time, full motion video from a drone right to a pair of glasses on a soldier in the field. Soldiers operated in a DCGS-A Tactical-Intelligence Ground Station, or TGS, a vehicle that gathers a variety of intelligence, including direct data feeds bringing critical geospatial, target indicator, full motion video and signals intelligence while stationary or on the move. During EC13 the TGS was able to receive full-motion video from a Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft and displayed on tactical glasses while on the move. The glasses have a 3-D depth display and are a visualization tool that feeds intelligence immediately to Soldiers to give them the ability to display full-motion video from unmanned aerial vehicles or unmanned aerial systems in real time. DCGS-A is a program that collects all of the available sensor and intelligence data from all the services and some of the dark siders and makes it available for analysts, for commanders and most importantly for the guys getting shot at.The Army's system is designed to give tactical leaders as full, clear and timely a picture of the battlefield as possible. Sometimes like this literally with pictures, but it encompasses all facets of battlefield and strategic intelligence. We generate staggering amounts of data, video, pictures etc. and historically that information has been stuck in the classic trap of vertical reporting silos. Information came in and each organization did their own analysis and then sent that up their chain. Very little sharing of information or data or certainly live video happened between organizations. One way to look at DCGS-A is as the Army's connect the dots program. If an analyst at Ft. Meade has one piece of a puzzle, and a JSTARS bird has another and the Brigade G-2 has a third, this is how we get that intel to the SF weapons guy on a rock in with eyes on the objective. Drive on people, drive on. Now about my jet pack.....Oh wait.
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Posted
Aug 02 2013, 02:23 AM
by
BLACKFIVE