a technology surges

8/14/2019 A Technology Surges

1/5


2/5

featurestorwww .technologyreview.com

repors daily. the inelligence ocers summaries wen ino

daabase called ASAS-L. A produc o Cold War hinking, h

daabase allows op commanders o monior and cordinaroop moemensbu is no easily accessible o parol lead

ers like Slaugher.

So or pracical purposes, his repor didn exis. Een h

ersion ha sayed on his compuer a Camp Falcon eenuallanished. I wen home wih my uni. there was no serer. N

coninuiy. Nohing, he says. the picures surieon his lap

op in Nashille, tN. He showed hem o me, along wih los ooher picures ha migh hae had some alue o his ellow so

diers, including one o he smiling principal o a girls school i

Baghdad and one o an Iraqi ranslaorlaer killed, Slaughe

saysineriewing someone who Slaugher says was belieed be an imam wih ies o al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Bu he days o parol leaders operaing hal-blind on he deadl

srees o Iraq are drawing o a close. Aer a wo-year rush program by he Penagons research arm, he U.S. Deense Advance

Research Projecs Agency, or DARPA, roops are now gein

wha migh be described as Google Maps or he Iraq couneinsurgency. there is nohing cuing-edge abou he underlyin

echnology: soware ha runs on PCs and aps muliple disriued daabases. Bu he roe o inormaion he sysem delier

is o cenral imporance in he daily lies o soldiers.the new echnologycalled he tacical Ground Reporin

Sysem, or tIGRis a map-cenric applicaion ha junior ofcer

(he young sergeans and lieuenans who command parols) ca

sudy beore going on parol and add o upon reurning. By click

ing on icons and liss, hey can see he locaions o key building

like mosques, schools, and hospials, and reriee inormaiosuch as locaion daa on pas aacks, geoagged phoos o house

and oher buildings (aken wih cameras equipped wih GlobaPosiioning Sysem echnology), and phoos o suspeced insu

gens and neighborhood leaders. they can een lisen o ciiliainerviews and wach videos o pas maneuvers. I is jus he kind o

inormaion ha soldiers need o learn abou Iraq and is perils

For some unis, anyway, he daabase is becoming he echnlogical ulcrum o he counerinsurgency. More han 1,500 junio

ofcersabou a h o parol leadersare already using he ech

nology, which was rs deployed in early 2007. the rs majouni o use ihe Firs Brigade Comba team, Firs Cavalry Div

sionreurned o he Unied Saes in lae January. A ew daybeore leaing Camp taji, norhwes o Baghdad, one soldier i

Slaugher knew ha inormaion abou he encouner couldhelp his ellow soldiersespecially green replacemens arri-

ing rom For Sewar, GAaoid geing killed or maimed. I

migh help hem capure insurgens, oo. So when dawn broke,he explored he blas sie wih a digial camera. He ook picureso he mound o brown earh concealing he sill-unexploded sec-

ond IED, and o a red-and-whie deonaor cord ha led o he

deice. He ook picures o a berm and a copse o palm rees hahad concealed he enemy. He ook picures o he improised

weapon: a 155-millimeer arillery shell ha had been drilled ou

and ed wih a use.Bu his aemps o share he inormaion ran ino a echno-

logical roadblock. Back a Camp Falcon, a aciliy on he souhern

ouskirs o Baghdad has one o a handul o so-called orward

operaing bases around he ciy, he yped up a documen in Micro-

so Word and appended his phoos. the repor wen o a ba-alion inelligence ocer swamped by wo or hree dozen such

baghdad route planner A new map-baed applicaion allowparol leader in Iraq o learn abou ciy landmark and pa even and enernew daa. In hi mock-up provided by DARPA (he map doe no refec acuaeven), he purple line how a poible Baghdad parol roue. Pa even ina 300-meer buer are noed. Hoile acion, uch a IED aack or hoo-ing, appear a variou red icon; riendly acion, uch a vii o chool,appear a blue icon. Clicking he icon bring up ex, phoo, even video.

CouRtEsyo

f

DARPA


3/5

featurestory2 technologyreview march/april2008

his uni, Major Parick Michaeliswho had many beer hingso dopaused o wrie an eusive 1,000-word e-mail o Technology

Review. He said ha he echnology had saed he lies o sol-diers by allowing hem o avoid IEDs, and ha i enabled hem o

make beer use o inelligence, capure insurgens, and improe

heir relaionships wih local people. the abiliy o draw he

roue o your parol ha day and hen o access he collecierepors, media, analysis o he enire organizaion, is prey pow-

erul, Michaelis wroe. I is a bi reoluionary rom a miliary

perspecie when you hink abou i, using peer-based inorma-ion o drive he nex move. Normally we are used o our higher

headquarers elling he parol leader wha he needs o hink.

A GrAnulAr EnvironmEnt

the Penagon has long alked abou empowering soldiers wihinormaion. Some new neworking echnologies were deployed

during he Iraq invasion, albei wih mixed resuls (see How Tech

Failed in Iraq, November 2004). And back in he Unied Saes,

he Penagon has been pursuing mulibillion-dollar R&D pro-

grams wih names like Fuure Comba Sysems. these pro-grams anicipae a day when aircra, ground ehicles, robos,

and soldier-mouned sensors collec masses o inormaion; newsoware makes sense o i all, deecing changes and ideniy-

ing arges; and wireless neworking echnologies link ghingunis and een indiidual soldiers, who migh hae digial dis-

plays mouned o heir helmes. Such echnologies are par o

he miliarys long-erm plan o inroduce wha is someimescalled nework-cenric warare.

Generally, howeer, hese high-ech isions hae no mean

much o he soldiers and marines parolling dangerous srees

in Iraq. U.S. roops conduc more han 300 sree parols around

he counry eery day; hose parols make up one o he warsprincipal rons. Bu or he mos par, he leaders o he parols

hae ound i dicul o access digial inormaion abou heirroues. Inelligence disseminaion was suck or years in anoher

era. We hae a endency in he army and marines and air orce

o build sysems, rs o all, ha are plaorm-cenric [buil oride on, say, a ank or a plane] and second, o build hem or he

higher echelons, says Pa ONeal, a reired brigadier general

who acs as an adisor o DARPAand whose son is currenly

sering in Iraq. Because has where we el, in he Cold War,he emphasis had o be, or he cordinaion o orces on a ery

large scale. tha didn se us up or success when we ound our-

data center the new oware documen he abric o lie in Iraq. In hi mock-up(which doe no refec accurae daa), a Baghdad neighborhood i e o by a purpleboundary, and place, people, and even are marked by color-coded icon. soldier canclick he icon and croll hrough li or more inormaion. or example, humbnail pho-o howing he aermah o an IED aack appear nex o he li. thouand o phooare ored in he applicaion daabae.

seles in Iraq. I is a ery granular enironmen, a ery block-o-

block enironmen.Soldiers had no consisen way o submi repors; many carried

old-ashioned green books or handwrien noes, while some

ried o se up homegrown daabases. And repor wriing aried

rom camp o camp. the need or somehing beer was obi

ous. In 2005, DARPA sared ackling he problem a For HoodtX, wih he help o reurning soldiers rom he Firs Brigade

Comba team. Programmers rom companies ha conraced

wih DARPA (including Ascend Inel, where Slaugher is nowdirecor o business deelopmen) ineriewed soldiers o learn

wha hey needed.

A prooype o he sysem was shown o soldiers or he rs

ime during a raining exercise a For Hood in April 2006, andin January 2007, i was inroduced in Iraq. there, programmers

obsered how he roops used i; hey colleced eedback and


4/5

featurestorwww .technologyreview.com

quickly made changes. Finallywih help rom he Rapid Equip-ping Force, an army uni devoed o quickly moving new gear ino

he eldhe sysem reached he 1,500 parol leaders using i now.

Deploying i widely required dealing wih wo main challengesraised by Iraqs spoy daa connecions: how o synchronize sca-

ered copies o he same daabase, any one o which a reurning

parol leader migh modiy, and how o gie soldiers mulimediainormaion wihou crashing he sysem. One soluion was a

nework ha careully raions ou bandwidh. For example, hedeaul mode or any phoograph is a humbnail version. A soldier

has o click on he humbnail o see a larger ersion and will ge a

response only i bandwidh allows.this is somehing Ive heard rom a couple o generals: here are

los o echnologies ha ge pushed ou o Iraq because engineers

wan o help, bu hey are niche applicaions, says Mari Maeda,

he DARPA program manager in charge o he eor. this appli-

caion is broadly used by parol leaders, on a day-o-day basis.

hink he impac is ery, ery large. ONeal oers an een les

resrained assessmen: Bes echnology Ie seen or small uniin he pas 40 years.

Waler Perry, a senior researcher a he Rand hink ank i

Arlingon, vA, and a vienam-era army signals ocer, also we

comes he new sysem. Perry works wih a Penagon-wide asorce ha has been rying o comba he scourge o IEDs hroug

adanced inelligence gahering and new kinds o sensors an

deecors. One o he ery rs hings we did in looking a hIED problem was o recognize ha he army is rying o gh a

insurgency wih a prey blun insrumen, Perry says. this i

abou 90 percen police work and 10 percen iolen conficParolshe cop on a beall ou a repor saying, Here is whadid. You ge siuaional awareness. And ha is o key imporanc

in ghing IEDs, he says.


5/5

featurestory4 technologyreview march/april2008

tEchnoloGy GAp

Wih he new DARPA echnology, soldiers are geing more andbeer inormaion. Bu some expers say ha or he soldiers

o be ruly empowered, miliary docrine and organizaion will

need o change oo. I hae seen one aer anoher o hese iner-esing neworking echnologies come along, and none o hem

has made a den in he insiuional resisance o organizaionalchange or docrinal innoaion, says John Arquilla, a proessor

o deense analysis a he Naval Posgraduae School in Monerey,

CA, who is a progenior o he concep o nework organizaionin he miliary. Yes, he says, parol leaders can now ener inor-

maion ino he sysem more easily. Bu we sill hae diisional-,brigade-, and baalion-leel srucures, mosly on supersized

orward operaing bases, wih he number o smaller oupossrelaiely ew. I we are going o alk abou a neworked warare,

we need o pu he nework ron and cener in our hinking. One

way o do ha is o deploy soldiers in smaller groups wih more

auhoriy o make decisions.thas wha happened in 2001, when special-operaions

orces were chasing al-Qaeda and he taliban in he mounains

o Aghanisan. When a eam idenied a arge, i did no hae

o send a repor up he chain o command and wai or a decisionbeore acing. I could call on comrades and even call in air srikes.

I you beliee ha he real implicaion o he Inormaion Age

is he empowermen o small groupsand i here is any lessonrom 9/11, ha is iwe are really alking abou inormaion haallows small groups o people o do sriking hings, says Arquilla.

the Iraq counerinsurgency should gh he same way he special

orces ough in Aghanisan, he says.

Sill, een wihou he kinds o organizaional changes haArquilla is advocaing(see Network Warfare, p. 12), DARPAs new

soware sysem is empowering ronline soldiers and shaping

operaions. For example, in a elephone ineriew rom Camp

Falcon, 28-year-old Capain Daid Liely described how tIGR

once helped soldiers rack down a pair o morar aackers. Onenigh, Lively recalled, soldiers on parol radioed back o base ha

hey were being shelled. A he base, oher soldiers apped inohe daabase and quickly ound earlier repors o morars com

ing rom an inersecion o wo canals in he iciniy. tIGR pro

ided some real-ime hisory o where we could look back where

a common source was coming rom, Liely said. the soldiers ahe base radioed he ndings o heir comrades and o a circling

Apache helicoper. the pilo headed or he spo and was able o

pursue a feeing pickup ruck wih morar ubes in is bed.Michaelis says such anecdoes are no uncommon. I can name

he number o imes ha parol leaders and company commanders

have urned o me and saed [ha] heir mos imporan ool heyhave o gh his gh has been tIGR, he wroe. Ive had ... ime

sensiive operaions ha were able o make associaions beween

he arge being handed o hem and local residens, [allowing he

soldiers o nd insurgens who oherwise would hae escaped]Ie had parol leaders aoid poenial IED ho spos or pass on

IED acics o heir ellow parol leaders.And he echnology is poised o expand. For now, i is accessible

only a miliary bases. the nex sep, says Maeda, is o insall i inHumees and oher miliary ehicles, allowing soldiers o down

load and ac on new inormaion in real ime. Some o hese vehicles

already hae some low-bandwidh connecions, and Maeda says

DARPA is working on ways o make he soware work using hesehin pipes. In addiion, he sysem may soon delier new kinds oinormaion. In he nex wo o hree years, i could oer sureil

lance picures rom circling unmanned aerial ehicles (UAvs) or

oher sensor sysems. I could sore biomeric inormaion, soha a soldier could see i a civilian being inerviewed was a known

insurgen suspec. there is a whole lis o enhancemens ha users

hae requesed ha we wan o ll, Maeda says.

I hose enhancemens are realized, he resul will look a lolike a deployed version o wha he Penagons big R&D programs

have been pursuing. Bu tIGR is growing organically, in response

o he needs o soldiers on he ground. I migh be going oo ar

o say ha his echnology will be he one o orce docrinal andorganizaional change; perhaps no everyone will embrace i. No

doub i causes discomor in hose comorable in radiional inel

deelopmen, Michaelis wries. As ONeal poins ou, howeereeryone inoled in ghing he Iraq insurgency is moiaed

o sae soldiers lies by eery means possible. In some cases, isquie personal. Im ocused on conemporary echnology or he

curren orce, ONeal says. Is all or my son.

davId talbot Is Technology Reviews chIef correspondent.

Iraq war dataCumulaie number o enries, including eens (such as aacks, sieisis, meeings, and discoery o weapons caches) and places (suchas mosques, checkpoins, and boundaries), in he tacical GroundReporing Sysem (tIGR) daabase aailable o parol leaders.

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Number

(thousands

)

March 07 May 07 July 07 sep. 07 Nov. 07 Jan. 08

a technology surges

Documents