CP-ISR

Army researchers are developing a pocket-sized aerial surveillance device. The Cargo Pocket Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance program is designing the device for Soldiers and small units operating in challenging ground environments. The Soldiers could use the CP-ISR device to observe around the corner of a building or into an adjacent room. The research is being conducted at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development, and Engineering Center in Massachusetts (formerly known as Natick Labs). The engineers are attempting to incorporate commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technology and equipment to design the miniature ISR devices. Read more in "Army researchers develop pocket-sized aerial surveillance device", Army.mil, November 19, 2014. (Photo U.S. Army).

MC-12W Liberty Aircraft to Army

The United States Air Force is getting rid of its MC-12W Liberty aircraft. These unique aircraft were extremely useful in providing intelligence for the Afghan counter-insurgency fight. The MC-12W was a key component of the F3EAD process and in "attacking the network". But since we have won (not) the counter-insurgency war in Afghanistan and it is hardly likely that the U.S. Air Force will never have to support U.S. ground forces in a counterinsurgency (supposedly COIN is dead!) the USAF is dumping these extremely useful aircraft that generated great intelligence for the Afghan counterinsurgency effort. Fortunately the Army is smart enough to get some of the MC-12W transferred to their inventory. (Now if we can just get a hold of the A-10s). Read more in "USAF outlines divestiture plans for MC-12W Liberty aircraft", IHS Jane's 360, November 10, 2014.

SAGE - Works with DCGS-A

The Distributed Common Ground System - Army (DCGS-A) is an expensive and troubled program. Intelligence analysts have complained about the complexity of the system as well as its glitches. Proponents of DCGS-A point to the variety of software applications that can "piggy back" off the DCGS-A system - which provides an integration of a number of ways to analyze, package, and distribute intelligence products. One of these applications is called "Situational Awareness Geospatially Enabled" or SAGE. It is a geospatial tool supporting DCGS-A. SAGE helps intelligence analysts to rapidly identify the landscape and environments that could be factors in relevant operational factors, like estimates of how quickly the enemy can march through a designated area due to terrain. SAGE was developed by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center's Geospatial Research Laboratory which is co-located at the U.S. Army Geospatial Center. The SAGE tool is resident in DCGS-A, which is the Army's intelligence foundation program. The SAGE tools are available for download through the Army Geospatial Center website. Learn more about SAGE at "Geospatial analysis tool built to support Army intelligence analysis", Army.mil, September 17, 2014.

Some Open Source Intel is Fake

Much is being made about the utility and importance of "open source intel". However, some of it can be misleading, not based on facts, and out-right deception. Governments and insurgent groups have been known to plant propaganda in social media. Read more in "Be Very Skeptical - A Lot of Your Open-Source Intel Is Fake", War is Boring, November 1, 2014.

Defense Clandestine Service (DFS)

Little is known about the Defense Clandestine Service (DFS) outside of the intelligence community. This newly established entity of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was set up a few years back. Some in Congress saw it as a redundant intelligence service and scaled back its funding; but to this day the DFS survives. The Pentagon's overseas spy service is a complimentary organization (some say potential rival) to the CIA and will deploy up to 500 undercover operatives to work alongside agents from the CIA and intelligence operatives from the special operations forces. The DFS agents receive the same training as CIA agents (at The Farm). Learn more about the DFS in "Pentagon's plans for a spy service to rival the CIA have been pared back", The Washington Post, November 1, 2014.

Investigation into DCGS-A Called For

A Congressman from California is calling for an investigation into a Defense Department employee who made millions of dollars and miss-represented his academic achievements while working on the DCGS-A intelligence system. The complicated computer system has cost the Army over $5 billion and it has been described as "broke" and an "under performer". Read more in "Congressman Wants Probe of Former Army Official", ABC News, November 7, 2014.

DCGS-A Suffers Another Black Eye

The Army's Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) program can't seem to catch a break. It is now revealed that a government official said to be ". . . the architect of a failed effort . . ." had an embellished resume. Seems he was known as "Dr. Richardson" yet never earned a Ph.D. (as seen on his resume). DCGS has been judged an expensive failure for the U.S. Army and intelligence units in Afghanistan tried to use other software applications rather than DCGS. Unfortunately, the billions of dollars need not have been wasted on DCGS as there was a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) computer application used by the Special Operations community that did the same function at a far less cost. Read more in "Official allowed others to believe he had Ph.D.", AP Big Story, October 28, 2014.

DCGS - A Failure with Revolving Door

The Distributed Common Ground System - Army or DCGS-A has proven to be a money pit. The "pie in the sky" fix for all things intelligence has not worked to its expectations and certainly has not been worth the billions of dollars spent on it. A recent news report now states that there is a "revolving door" that allows contractors and DoD officials to work first for the government on DCGS related projects and then for the many firms that are sub-contracting on the DCGS program. Read more in "INSIDE WASHINGTON: Profiting from failure", AP The Big Story, October 27, 2014.

AVATAR - SOCOM Data Mining

AVATAR is an open-source data-mining program to be run by Special Operations Command (SOCOM) at the tactical, strategic, and operational levels. AVATAR stands for "Automated Visualization for Tailored Analytical Reporting". The objective of AVATAR is to filter and display open-source information that is specific and timely to the needs of Special Operations Forces. Read more in "SOCOM Wants to Start Data Mining the Open Web", Defense News, October 25, 2014.

ISAF Now Classifying ANSF Assessments

According to recent news reports the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is now classifying assessments of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). ISAF uses the Regional ANSF Status Report (RASR) to rate the various elements of the Afghan National Security Forces. The RASR is a monthly report that provides an update on the readiness, long-term sustainability, and associated shortfalls of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan Local Police (ANP). The RASR executive summary provides a high-level overview of the ANSF corps-level units across several operational effectiveness pillars and up until now has been unclassified. The bulk of the RASR that deals with units at the operational and tactical level was always classified.

The ANSF has some serious capability gaps (intelligence, close air support, logistics, aviation, MEDEVAC, aerial ISR, etc.). ISAF feels that sharing information about those capability gaps and vulnerabilities could harm the operational effort. Of course, the classification of the reports (capability ratings of the ANSF) denies the United States public an accurate picture of what is really going on with the development of the ANSF. There are many ongoing assessments of the ANSF that are available, but the ISAF assessments generally are more revealing and accurate.

Whether the classification of the general high-level overview is truly warranted is hard to determine. It seems that the general shortfalls of the ANSF are well-known so what "classified" information is ISAF really trying to protect? Sometimes the protection of information is truly warranted on an intelligence and operational basis and sometimes it is part of the "information operations" campaign of ISAF. Hard telling not knowing.

Read more in "U.S. Military Classifying Assessments of Afghan Military", Bloomberg Businessweek, October 30, 2014. See also "The Capabilities of the Afghan Military are Suddenly a Secret", Time.com, October 30, 2014.

OSINT DL Required for all Army Personnel

The head of the Army Intelligence School and Center has announced that the Army will soon require all of its personnel to take online distance learning courses on Open-source Intelligence or OSINT. Read more in "Army to require open-source intel training", C4ISR & Networks, October 17, 2014.

NDS Arrest two Haqqani Leaders

The Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) has arrested two senior leaders of the Haqqani Network in eastern Khost province. This, if true, is likely a major blow to the Pakistan-based militant group. The Haqqani Group receives support, protection sanctuary, and operational assistance from the Pakistan intelligence service. Read more in "2 Haqqani leaders arrested by Afghan intelligence", Stars and Stripes, October 16, 2014.

New PM for DCGS-A

For all you Intel types out there who have had the frustration of working with the Army's Distributed Common Ground System there is some news. The DCGS-A venture has a new program manager. His job will be to roll out new (and better) versions of DCGS to intelligence analysts that actually work. Read more in "New program manager of DCGS-A hopes for strong start", FCW.com, October 14, 2014.

Improving Tactical Intelligence

A former Army intelligence captain who was assigned to an aviation intelligence section and stationed in Jalalabad, Afghanistan in 2009 is now attending the System Design and Management program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is working on a thesis that will make systems better for intelligence collection and analysis. Read more in Designing Intelligence, MIT News, October 8, 2014.

Intelligence Programs Under Review

The $80 billion U.S. intelligence community is currently being reviewed by staffers on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The review will develop a comprehensive list of all the collection programs from the U.S. intelligence community. I think there is about 16 different intelligence organizations in the intelligence community (IC); so that sounds like lots of work! The Senate committee has done a good job reviewing and providing oversight over new programs but has been surprised with revelations of legacy programs that it apparently was unaware of until recently. Read more in "Congress Scouring Every U.S. Spy Program", The Daily Beast, October 10, 2014.

SFAAT Teaches OCC-R How to Use COP

While the nation and world is focused on events in the Ukraine, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere; in the country of Afghanistan members of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are still at work. Their principal mission in 2014 is Security Force Assistance or training, advising, and assisting the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) to become more proficient and able as the ISAF mission goes away at the end of 2014. Part of this mission is to ensure that the Operational Coordination Centers located at the regional level (usually co-located with the ANA Corps) are able to function on their own. This includes being able to track events on the battlefield. SFAAT 3 is currently advising the OCC-R South in Kandahar to plot significant acts that occur in their battlespace. While NATO and the U.S. military have sophisticated software applications that do this (C2PC, ADOCS, CPOF, etc.) the Afghans are many years behind. SFAAT 3 has put together a series of programs for the ANSF (similar to Google Maps) that has the ability to track all types of significant acts. Read more in "SFAAT 3 encourages teamwork by improving the ANSF common operating picture", DVIDS, September 19, 2014. (Photo by SSG Whitney Houston, RC South).

SAGE - A New Terrain Awareness Tool

The Army is now using a new terrain awareness tool in conjunction with the Distributed Common Ground System - Army (DCGS-A). The Situational Awareness Geospatially Enabled (SAGE) tool is designed to increase the understanding of weather and terrain. Learn more in "US Army boots terrain awareness with new geospatial analysis tool", Army-Technology.com, September 19, 2014.

"The Enemy is Watching . . ."

Lawrence A. Levine has wrote a column entitled "In Afghanistan, assume the enemy is watching, waiting" (Kansas City Star, September 9, 2014). The article provides insight on how insurgent intelligence networks operate in Afghanistan. He discusses the "mindset" and "cultural ignorance" that challenges intelligence analysts in Afghanistan.

163rd MI Battalion Assists Afghans in RC South

In the current environment in Afghanistan U.S. Soldiers are doing a lot less fighting and more advising. This has been the norm since 2012 when the focus of ISAF turned to Security Force Assistance or SFA. As part of that advisory effort the Afghan National Army is provided advice and assistance in a number of functional areas. One of those areas is extremely important - the ability to gather, analyze, process, and distribute intelligence. As every SFA adviser working in Afghanistan knows  - intelligence is a key component in conducting operations in a counterinsurgency. The Afghan National Security Forces have not been very adept in conducting intelligence-driven operations; but they are receiving training, advice, and support in this important area. Each of the Afghan corps have a Military Intelligence Kandak (battalion). In Regional Command South the Military Intelligence Kandak of the 205th ANA Corps is advised by elements of the 163rd Military Intelligence Battalion. Read more on the 163rd in "Fort Hood MI battalion more than halfway finished with deployment", Fort Hood Herald, February 19, 2014.

SFABs and the Targeting Process in an Advisory Role

A recent online article discusses the challenges that a Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB) encountered when it attempted to advise the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) on a successful targeting cycle that would provide focus to their tactical operations. Two Army Captains who recently returned from an Afghan deployment to Regional Command South provide their observations on this topic to include the targeting process (see F3EAD), working with their Afghan counterparts, understanding the dynamics of the Afghan population, and providing intelligence support to a counterinsurgency. Read the article in "Targeting Challenges in the Advising Environment", Small Wars Journal, February 19, 2014.