Program Notes

As shown by the flight hours of unmanned aircraft (UA) in Iraq and Afghanistan, which are expected to exceed 500,000 in 2008, the U.S. military is more reliant than ever on UA to observe, stalk and strike enemy targets. But there are gaps in current capabilities to quickly and accurately portray and quantify a real-time, complete integrated air picture as well as effectively track, tag and disseminate enemy target information in a dynamically changing battlespace.

As a means to narrow those gaps, the Air Force Global Cyberspace Integration Center (GCIC) is sponsoring an initiative called Kaleidoscope that is on the cutting edge of processing UA intelligence by improving the accessibility, integration and utilization of UA video. The system includes functions to archive and retrieve past video based on scene and event characteristics such as color, size and behavior of enemy targets in video.

Soon after it is received and stored, important intelligence data becomes perishable over time. Currently, retrieval of stored intelligence data is a manual, labor-intensive process requiring long hours to accomplish. Kaleidoscope, through an automatic archiving system, can greatly reduce the time required for analysts to retrieve and sort through older but still important intelligence data.

Another key warfighting advantage that comes from Kaleidoscope involves friend or foe tracking. Targets in the video’s field of view are automatically extracted real-time and distributed via cursor-on-target common messaging format. By extracting and distributing that vital target information in low-bandwidth format, Kaleidoscope provides low-bandwidth disadvantaged users access to limited but critical “just-the-facts” information.

For the warfighter, Kaleidoscope brings the “no frills” information separate from the “bells and whistles” that come with high-bandwidth UAV full-motion video format. It would be much like only receiving needed data in plain text form as opposed to data with high-resolution graphics. Finally, Kaleidoscope provides warfighters with the ability to accurately maintain enemy tracking and identification even after that enemy’s movement is obscured through tree lines, tunnels and other obstacles.

“The benefit to the warfighter is that the intelligence community will be able to take UA video from this system and turn it into actionable intelligence,” said Colonel Stephen Moulton, director of GCIC modernization and innovation. “From there, it can be shared with tactical users that don’t have the highbandwidth capability of an air operation center.”

Next Generation Leader

Rear Admiral John W. Goodwin has been assigned as assistant chief of naval operations for the Navy’s Next Generation Enterprise Network System Program.

The secretary of the Navy created the new assistant chief of naval operations position in October to ensure that the Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) will be more reliable, secure and responsive to the Department of Navy (DoN) work force.

The new directorate, the NGEN System Program Office (SPO), will coordinate continued service for existing shore and garrison networks, support consolidation of legacy networks and direct the transition to NGEN while providing implementation oversight to enable enhanced capabilities within the future Naval Network Environment (NNE).

NGEN is the DoN’s first step in building the integrated naval networks that will make up the NNE and is the follow-on to the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) when the current contract ends in 2010.

The NGEN SPO, a first-of-its-kind organization in the DoN, brings together the DoN’s governance areas for NGEN—policy; resources and requirements; acquisition; and fleet readiness, support and operations— under a single command. The new level of coordination at the NGEN SPO will ensure that stakeholders are included in the design and implementation process and help facilitate a smooth transition to NGEN from NMCI with no loss of services to end users.

Goodwin has been serving as commander, Naval Air Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. ♦

* Compiled by KMI Media Group staff