gif 13 5 final

The Magazine of the National Intelligence Community

Innovation Ally

Susan GordonDeputy DirectorNGA

Maritime Intelligence O Cloud Computing O IC ITEGEOINT Symposium O Evader Maps O FINND

July/August 2015 Volume 13, Issue 5

www.GIF-kmi.com

Office Of the DirectOr Of NatiONal iNtelligeNce

Cover / Q&AFeatures

SuSan GordonDeputy Director

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

17

Departments Industry Interview2 Editor’S PErSPEctivE3 ProGram notES/PEoPlE14 induStry raStEr27 rESourcE cEntEr

vonna HEatonVice President and Lead ExecutiveInformation and Intelligence SolutionsBall Aerospace and Technologies

July/august 2015Volume 13, issue 5GEOSPATIAL INTELLIGENCE FORUM

13labS tacklE nEtwork SEcurity, rEliabilityAn applied research organization acquired and recently re-launched by intelligence services provider Vencore to deliver generation-after-next research and engineering solutions has won two contracts for innovative research from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.By Harrison Donnelly

22it ProjEct SPurS ic tranSformationThe greatest opportunity for change in the intelligence community lies in the Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise, according to Cathy Johnston, director for analysis for the Defense Intelligence Agency. By Harrison Donnelly

23GEoint biG data SuPPortS SPEcial oPErationSThe geospatial archives of U.S. Special Operations Command contain nearly 500 terabytes of data, according to Earl Miller, a geospatial expert with the command who spoke at the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s recent GEOINT 2015 Symposium.

24Human GEoGraPHy aidS EvadErSInstead of information about leopards, tigers and other carnivorous animals, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has added human geography content—languages, ethnic groups, population densities and cultural customs—to evasion charts.By Jessica Daues

25crowdSourcinG for innovationA non-profit organization dedicated to bringing government and industry together to solve problems is using crowdsourcing and other techniques to encourage innovation and overcome obstacles in the federal contracting process.By Harrison Donnelly

26ESri uSEr confErEncE uPdatEA number of major announcements were made at the recent Esri User Conference.

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“We need to improve the

reach and depth of our acquisition

capabilities, from the quality/content/clarity of our requests for proposals to improving our industry

engagements. And, we need to make sure that our new strategy is

reflected in every new acquisition.

Good things happen when we know and communicate what we want.”

— Susan Gordon

4analyticS in tHE cloudThe National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has several developmental programs under way to experiment with new and innovative ways to derive connections among collected data, including the GEOINT Data Analytics Cloud, which is focused on how graph representations of data can allow analysts to better connect the dots.By Peter BuxBaum

8maritimE intElliGEncEA recent test of an ISR system aboard a Navy experimental vessel has highlighted the emergence of a new generation of technology aimed at increasing situational awareness of the maritime domain and meeting the pressing need for advanced systems designed for operations at sea.By Henry canaDay

20wHo’S wHo in odniA guide to the organization and people of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.


A recent solicitation by the Marine Corps Systems Command has offered a glimpse into how the Marines use, and would like to use, intel-ligence and geospatial technology on the battlefield.

The request for information (RFI) seeks industry help in developing a field-deployable IT system that is capable of receiving, processing, exploiting and disseminating data/information from multiple ISR sensors for such missions as tactical exploitation, topographic produc-tion, targeting and meteorology.

As the notice points out, the current array comprises a wide range of hardware, including ruggedized and non-ruggedized laptops, desk-tops, servers and power sources. Different operating systems are used for various parts of the system, which complicates software programming. Moreover, the equipment is bulky and sensitive enough that it can only be used in a command post or other controlled environ-ment, or inside a vehicle, thus limiting the flexibility and mobility of ISR systems.

In response, the Marines are looking for solutions that will reduce redundancies in the current system, while also improving mobility and scalability and, as new technologies emerge, extending the usability of the system.

Among ideas for alternative solutions, the RFI lists “computer systems that combine two or more form factors/features, virtualization tools/compatibility layers, micro modular servers and data centers.”

Because the system may have to be expanded to meet future needs, it probably should be made of standardized, modular components, the request indicates. It also needs to take into account the needs of users, such as improved ergonomics and lighter-weight and quieter air conditioning for the computers.

Looked at another way, the notice suggests that Marines operating in the field are currently using systems that are not very mobile, don’t necessarily use the latest in network design, have components that may not work together easily and are heavy, noisy and sometimes difficult to operate. But I’m guessing that industry will have no shortage of ideas for how to make them better.

harrison DonnellyeDitor

EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE


EditorialManaging EditorHarrison Donnelly [email protected]

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Volume 13, Issue 5 • July/August 2015

Marine Corps Sergeant Alexander Hoodwin climbs aboard the USS Essex from a rigid-hull inflatable boat in the Indian Ocean. Hoodwin is a radio operator with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Elements of the unit are conducting naval operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of responsibility. [Photo courtesy of U.S. Marine Corps]

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PROGRAM NOTES Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Navy Captain Ronald C. Copley has been selected for promotion to rear admiral (lower half) and assigned as deputy director for specialized collection operations, National Security Agency. Copley is currently serving as commander, Joint Intelligence Operations Center, U.S. Central Command, MacDill AFB, Fla.

Air Force Brigadier General Mary F. O’Brien, who has been serving as special assistant to the deputy chief of staff, ISR, Headquarters, U.S. Air Force, has been assigned as director of Intelligence, J-2, Headquarters, U.S. Cyber Command, Fort Meade, Md.

Army Major General Kirk F. Vollmecke has been assigned

as deputy program executive officer, intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.

The U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation has named Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, vice chief of the defense staff for the U.K. Royal Air Force, as the 2015 recipient of its Arthur C. Lundahl–Thomas C. Finnie Lifetime Achievement Award.

Peter Highnam, who has been serving as director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, has joined the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency as director of its InnoVision Directorate.

Recent executive promotions at Northrop Grumman include D. Kay Rand as vice president of

operations and Sonal B. Deshpande as vice president of mission assurance of the company’s Electronic Systems sector. In addi-tion, Steve Lunny has become vice president and program manager for the ISR division within the compa-ny’s information systems sector.

Joseph Seppi, the national security practice director for Woolpert, has been elected to a two-year term on the MAPPS board of directors. MAPPS is the only national asso-ciation of firms in the surveying, spatial data and GIS field in the United States. Seppi has been with Woolpert—a national architecture, engineering and geospatial firm headquartered in Dayton, Ohio—for more than seven years. He works out of the firm’s office in Arlington, Va.

PEOPLE Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

http://media.dma.mil/2014/May/28/2000797963/-1/-1/0/140528-F-PB123-159.JPG[6/18/2015 11:40:10 AM]

Brigadier General Mary F. O’Brien

http://media.globenewswire.com/cache/189/hires/34267.jpg[6/17/2015 10:51:51 AM]

Sonal B. Deshpande


Steve Lunny

Joseph Seppi


D. Kay Rand

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and DigitalGlobe have partnered to release an open-source software toolkit designed to harness the power of crowdsourced mapping for geospatial big data analytics. The open-source project Hootenanny provides a scalable processing engine and inter-active editing interface to enable rapid conflation of map features generated from satellite imagery, UAVs and mobile devices.

In less than a decade, crowdsourced mapping communities like OpenStreetMap have attracted more than 2.5 million volunteers who have digitized more than 130 million buildings and 1.3 million miles of roads. Countless other organizations and individuals are using satellite imagery and other methods to capture the geometry and metadata of roads, buildings and points of interest. To create high-quality maps and enable analytic func-tions like routing, suitability analysis or predictive modeling, it is important to unify multiple sources to create the best available database.

“The commercialization of GEOINT is leading to exponential growth of publicly available geospatial information,” said Chris Rasmussen, NGA’s public software development lead. “Hootenanny as an open-source project will enable new levels of data sharing across the community that will

increase our nation’s ability to quickly respond to emerging threats. This is a proactive move that steers into the collaborative mapping environment to derive more value from unclassified sources.”

Hootenanny leverages the open architecture of OpenStreetMap to facilitate integration of diverse geospatial datasets into a common key value data structure. An open library of conflation algorithms applies various techniques to unify the geometry and metadata of topographic features. Conflicts can be visualized and resolved through an interactive application built on the iD Editor, an open-source map editing tool developed by Mapbox.

Conflated datasets can be exported in a variety of GIS formats, including ESRI Shapefile, File Geodatabase, Web Feature Service and native OpenStreetMap formats. Hootenanny also enables Geospatial Extract Transform Load capabilities supporting various schemas such as the Topographic Data Store and Multi-National Geospatial Co-Production Program.

Hootenanny is available at: https://github.com/ngageoint/hootenanny. The software use, modification and distribution rights are stipulated within the General Public License.

Peter Highnam

Toolkit Harnesses Crowdsourcing for Analytics

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NGA explores how dAtAbAse techNoloGies cAN help mAke seNse out of the GrowiNG mouNds of GeospAtiAl iNformAtioN.

The U.S. military and intelligence communities continue to collect mega-volumes of geospatial data not simply because they can, but also because they must. Advances in sensor, processing and storage technologies have enabled the capture, analysis and dissemination of ever-increasing levels of information.

At the same time, the nature of the threats the United States faces and the missions its military and intelligence personnel must fulfill have changed. The challenge of potential conflicts with major nations remains, but those relatively static military threats are generally observable over time—unlike the threats of today, which frequently are smaller, mobile and camouflaged by civilian populations. Hence the need to constantly surveil loca-tions of suspected threats and to keep tabs on areas where threats might arise, all of which yields the enormous intelligence loads that are by now well known.

At the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, efforts are under way to transform the way the agency conducts business in response to these new realities. The old paradigm was for NGA to collect imagery, transform the data into maps and hand those off to analysts, commanders and policymakers. The future will see NGA transforming the continual inflow of geospatial data into intelligence that customers can use in real time, or close to it.

NGA has several developmental programs under way to experiment with new and innovative ways to derive connections

among collected data. One such program is the GEOINT Data Analytics Cloud (GDAC), which is focused on how graph repre-sentations of data can allow analysts to better connect the dots. Other programs are investigating how other database tech-nologies perform to make sense out of the growing mounds of geospatial information.

deNsity of dAtA

The issue concerns the perennial big data problem, but with a twist. Geospatial infomation tends to be particularly data-dense and comes in formats not amenable to being processed by tradi-tional relational databases. Traditional SQL databases are great at crunching relatively small sets—in the hundreds of millions of records—of formatted data.

Geospatial data are now coming in sets of billions and tril-lions of records and rarely appears in formats that relational databases want. That’s why there is an imperative need to per-fect new kinds of database technology that specifically address geospatial data.

Cloud technology is part and parcel of the big data solution. By allowing for the provisioning of standard computing resources on an as-needed basis, the cloud keeps the costs of doing big data much lower than they would otherwise be if organizations had to

by peter buxbAum

Gif correspoNdeNt

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rely on permanently built-out computing and stor-age infrastructures and proprietary technology.

“The paradigm NGA has been using for the past 50 years is not the best going forward,” said Duncan McCarthy, a technical director at NGA. “Our intel-ligence questions no longer have to do with fixed sites. Our job is to look to the future and investi-gate many different database, display and process-ing capabilities. We are looking for ways to index data so we can organize and analyze it in an auto-matic way so analysts can see connections between data. GDAC is one of the many ways we are working to pursue that goal.”

“The intelligence environment is becoming more complicated,” said Michael Mourelatos, vice president and chief technology officer of the L-3 National Security Solutions (NSS) Intelligence Solutions sector. “Not only are there greater num-bers of mobile assets collecting data, but also the mechanisms available to deliver value from analyz-ing the data are different than it was just three years ago. Agencies that are deploying cloud capabilities are gaining the benefits of greater computational horsepower at much lower costs and the ability to provide intelligence products to analysts in an expedited fashion.”

Several key factors are driving the need for technologies that support large-volume GEOINT data analytics, according to Lee Hall, director of exploitation and visualization solutions at Lockheed Martin. “First is the emergence of large data sets,” he said. “The proliferation of satellites and other sensors means that

we have an overwelming amount of data on the sur-face of the earth and the changes that take place over time, but limited human reosurces to exploit and make use of that data.”

A second driver is the need to integrate GEOINT with other forms of intelligence. “We are using geospatial intellegence as a canvas upon which to overlay information from other intelligence sources,” said Hall. “There is the need to correlate the data and to derive information from individual data points using geospatial and temporal infor-mation and integrating them to pull together the intelligence picture.”

mAkiNG dAtA useful

The big data problem must be tackled on the front end, where the data are collected, as well as on the back end, where they are processed and analyzed.

“We are leveraging technology that has been used on the open Internet to deal with the large volumes of data and the metadata associated with it,” said Hall. “On the back end, the elastic nature

of cloud infrastructure allows you to spin out more resources when needed and then spin them down. Data become more searchable and discoverable to anyone with a Web browser and proper credentials. They can gain faster access to data and more easily collaborate on it. All this helps turn data into something useful as opposed to something overwhelming.”

Michael Mourelatos

Duncan McCarthy


For McCarthy, GDAC is akin to a concept car which is used to experiment with techniques and technologies to help manu-facture other vehicles but which may not be manufactured itself. “The research we are doing in GDAC is cutting-edge, but we are not always 100 percent sure where we are going to go with that,” he said.

GDAC is researching a way of storing and indexing data using a graph structure so that relationships between data can be easily visualized. “A graph is one way of showing connections between data,” said McCarthy. “A graph structure can be made of almost anything. A person’s life can be mapped in terms of the places he goes, the distances he travels and the frequency of his visits to destinations. The graph structures help in visualizing connec-tions between things.”

GDAC has been operating for several years with the help of a small contractor, Mission Focus.

GDAC is but one research program being conducted at NGA designed to investigate how the agency can best make use of cloud technologies as it continues to migrate in that direction. “We are working with new technologies that will help us look at vast amounts of imagery and identify areas where threats may be coming from,” said McCarthy. “We use activity-based intelligence to understand what activities look like in a given area and whether anomalies represent something of concern.”

One of the challenges associated with the processing of GEOINT is that the the data aren’t always amenable to being structured by traditional relational databases. For example, a loca-tion of interest may not be found on a road grid. “Traditional data-bases typically can’t answer GEOINT questions,” said McCarthy. “Some relational databases can be augmented with software to deal with geospatial data.”

In addition, traditional databases are limited in the number of records they can process at a single time. “You’re really pushing it when you go past 100 million records,” said McCarthy. “When you get to a billion records you’re breaking just about any relational database out there.”

“Dealing with geospatial data is computationally intensive,” said Jim Moore, a former Army geospatial analyst who now manages L-3 NSS’s ISR and geospa-tial practice. “Moving this process to a cloud enviro-inment makes processing exponentially faster.”

These days, geosptial data often come in the form of video, which is not well managed by tra-ditional databases. “We are are taking lessons from commer-cial online providers like Netflix, Hulu and YouTube,” said Hall. “These Internet technologies make data easier to use, discover and manage.”

Over the past few months, Lockheed Martin has been working with NGA and Amazon Web Services’ Commercial Cloud Services (C2S) to inaugurate cloud-based hosting of geosptial information. “This effort involves redeploying geosptial applications to the cloud,” said Hall. “This allows us to better serve a broader commu-nity of users and to provide web services that NGA and other agen-cies use to build their own unique capabilities on top of.”

Late last year, NGA became the first intelligence agency to host an operational capability within C2S, when Lockheed Martin deployed the interactive map for NGA’s Map of the World to the C2S environment.

The Map of the World initiative, designed for both novice users and GEOINT experts, serves as a platform to explore constantly updated content and link natural and man-made features to intel-ligence observations. “Users can search for objects like bridges or railroad depots and know where the objects are located, as well as intelligence embedded within each object,” said Hall.

NGA’s second pioneering step in the cloud came earlier this year when Lockheed Martin and Esri deployed the portal for Esri’s ArcGIS software, which connects users to maps and geo-graphic information, to the C2S environment. The portal provides a single environment for analysts to securely organize and share data throughout the intelligence community and Department of Defense. “It’s also the foundational step in consolidating multiple geospatial intelligence portals into the single NGA-provided por-tal, resulting in technology and license cost savings,” said Hall.

Both of these Lockheed Martin-NGA milestones came as part of the NGA’s Total Application Services for Enterprise Requirements contract vehicle, part of the Geospatial-Intelligence Visualization Services program.

NoN-relAtioNAl dAtAbAses

NGA contonues to experiment with the non-relational data-bases known as NoSQL—not only SQL, as the programming lan-guage for relational databases are known. Many of these efforts involve the use of the Hadoop file storage system, which uses the cloud to spread data across many machines, and the MapReduce computing scheme, both of which are used by Google to deliver answers to queries from across the Internet.

“MapReduce maps queries to potentially thousands of machines and then reduces the results to a single answer,” McCarthy explained.

NGA is working with a number of NoSQL data-bases, including MongoDB and Accumulo, both of which are open-source products that provide innovative ways of storing unformatted and semi-formatted data efficiently and in a way that facili-tates the easy discovery of data and of relationships among data.

Accumulo was not built for geospatial data, McCarthy acknowledged, so developers wrote a product called GeoWave, which enables Accumulo to process geospatial infornation in NoSQL data-bases and put it out on the Internet. GeoWave,

which provides geospatial and temporal indexing on top of Accumulo, is available for download at github.com.

“NoSQL databases allow users to search content without put-ting it into a particular format so that they can perform analyt-ics on data without interrupting the data,” said Mourelatos. “Video doesn’t fit easily into relational databases. NoSQL technologies are more conducive to providing analytic support for that kind of data.”

L-3 NSS is helping its customers introduce new geosptial tech-nologies and move existing capabilities into the cloud to capture computational efficiencies and deliver faster analysis of geospa-tial data. NSS’s Big Data Ecosystem (BDE) is a platform for ingest-ing and analyzing structured and unstrucutured information. BDE has been deployed an as analytics solution at the U.S. Special Operations Command, among other users.

Jim Moore


“BDE enables users to fuse vast amounts of data from disparate sources in near-real time,” said Mourelatos. “It discovers and pro-cesses structured, unstructured and semi-structured data quickly and efficiently. Its intuitive user interface makes data visualization and decision-making easy.”

BDE, based on open-source standards and built on the NoSQL Hadoop framework, includes petabyte-scale storage and process-ing that makes visualizing and informed decision-making faster. Open-source technology minimizes the cost of ownership, and BDE’s management dashboard allows users to visualize and query data, discover system trends and identify previously hidden cor-relations. “BDE is hardware-agnostic, and its modular, open-source design makes it easy to work with any Hadoop variant,” said Mourelatos.

L-3’s yet-to-be-launched Integrated Spatial Analytics Solutions Stack (IS3), currently in service for one L-3 customer, is an open-source, high-performance distributed computing architec-ture designed to store, process and disseminate high volumes of data. “IS3 addresses performance issues associated with the analysis of large data sets by circumventing traditional relational database managment and geograpahic information systems,” said Mourelatos.

The software included in IS3 processes large volumes of data on commodity hardware, enables spatial and tempo-ral analysis from multiple sources and automates repeatable tasks. It is also optimized to disseminate result sets to users in

low-bandwidth environments and to scale to support increased processing needs.

IS3 includes a RESTful application programmer interface (API) that ensures compatibility with any external software program able to communicate through the Representational State Transfer (REST), a web services software architecture. “The API makes IS3 a powerful analysis and computing engine that can be leveraged by many front-end-user interfaces and applications,” said Mourelatos.

McCarthy characterized the implications of these ideas for the future of NGA this way: “The ultimate vision is that we won’t have people in cubicles trying to count objects that may seem threat-ening to us. The machines will automatically extract information such as the number of missiles on the ground, enabling personnel to think more analytically. Instead of poring over images and fig-uring out how many missiles are in a given area, analysts will be querying systems to figure out what has changed since yesterday and how these changes may or may not represent a threat.

“Analysts will be more focused on who the actors are that are threatening us and will be trying to figure out what and how they are thinking and what their strategy is,” thus providing deci-sion makers with greater insights into potential threats and more information about how to respond, he added. O

For more information, contact GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly at [email protected] or search our online archives

for related stories at www.gif-kmi.com.

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A recent test of an ISR system aboard a Navy experimental vessel has high-lighted the emergence of a new genera-tion of technology aimed at increasing situational awareness of the maritime domain.

With the focus of U.S. strategic policy shifting from the hinterlands of Southwest Asia to the world’s larg-est ocean, where future conflicts could involve adversaries with the highest lev-els of technological sophistication, there is a pressing need for advanced sys-tems designed for operations at sea. In response, industry is developing a num-ber of new products for maritime intelli-gence ranging from satellite-based radar to underwater sensors.

For surface threats, new tools are being built that will enable the Navy to react very quickly and precisely. The Stiletto experimental vessel’s success-ful test of an advanced intelligence solution combined two Raytheon technol-ogies: the Persistent Surveillance System Cross Domain Solution (PSS CDS) and Intersect Sentry.

PSS CD collects data from multiple sources and passes these to Intersect Sentry. Based on this feed and speci-fied triggers, Sentry’s software auto-matically directs full motion video (FMV) cameras.

Both PSS CD and Intersect Sentry are relatively mature in Technology Readiness Level (TRL) terms, noted Jeffery Little, C4ISR domain expert for Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services. Elements of the joint solution are at TRL 7 or 8.

The Stiletto test demonstrated how quickly these technologies could deploy for different mission sets in naval special warfare. “This mission was to maintain domain awareness in a littoral situation to enable warfighting,” Little said.

Intersect Sentry received an alert from detection of signals intelligence, then slewed the FMV to the SIGINT source, explained Tim Freeman, the com-pany’s deputy director for command, con-trol and awareness.

A key element in the PSS CD is the Guard function, which keeps different

levels of classified and unclassified data separate, preventing penetration, corrup-tion or leakage. The PSS CD can thus exploit all levels of classified information, plus completely unclassified data, without threatening security breaches.

The PPS CD-Sentry combination could also be used in a variety of human-itarian and crisis operations, such as recent earthquake relief efforts in Nepal. By combining classified and unclassified information securely, the joint solution could give full situational awareness.

Combining PSS CD with Intersect Sentry dramatically enhances the pro-ductivity of operators by dividing moni-toring tasks into those that machines do well and those that humans are needed for. The operator sets up triggers for alerts, then Sentry reacts to these alerts by automatically slewing FMV.

Sentry’s software is agnostic about what sort of data triggers its reactions. Alerts may be triggered by data from sen-sors external to the ship or whatever plat-form Sentry is on, or by this platform’s own internal sensors, such as radar,

by heNry cANAdAy, Gif correspoNdeNt

iNdustry is developiNG New products for mAritime AwAreNess rANGiNG from sAtellite-bAsed rAdAr to uNderwAter seNsors.


temperature readings or any other inter-nal data feed.

The system is physically compact, with most current hardware for keeping classified and unclassified data securely separate needing no more than half a computer rack. The Guard element of PSS CD is about the size of one external hard drive, and the entire PSS CD is about the size of a shoebox, plus displays. “That advance in size, weight and power means you can bring it to any tactical platform,” Freeman said.

Small size means the PSS CD can be used on almost any platform, including any manned ship or aircraft, tactical vehi-cles and mid-to-large unmanned aerial vehicles. It could be carried by individual warfighters, although battery power might limit its use there. Intersect Sentry soft-ware can run on any suitable processors, including smartphones.

The Raytheon solution can be very quickly adapted to new mission sets, Freeman said, and it is also easy to build alert criteria with a user-friendly interface.

Little said he expects Raytheon will be asked to return for the next Stiletto trial, and hopes to participate in the Navy’s Trident Spectre exercise in 2016. The com-pany will continue to refine its solution and make it more robust, with an eye to widespread use across the Department of Defense within five years.

spAce-bAsed rAdAr

MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) has pioneered in the use of space-based radar for maritime domain awareness, starting with the launch of RADARSAT-1 in 1995 and RADARSAT-2 in 2007. It is now looking toward the launch of its RADARSAT Constellation Mission.

David Belton, vice president of geo-spatial services, said MDA sees maritime domain awareness as fusing data from a variety of sources, including terrestrial, airborne and space-based radar, terrestrial and space-based automatic identification systems (AISs) and data on vessel regis-try. Fusion is performed by a geographic

display engine such as the MDA BlueHawk, which does advanced data analytics to identify suspicious behavior that may require further investigation.

MDA is active in space-based syn-thetic aperture radar (SAR) for near real-time detection of vessels. Initially based on RADARSAT-1 and RADARSAT-2, MDA has expanded support of SAR to include Germany’s TerraSAR-X, Italy’s CosmoSkyMed, Europe’s Sentinel 1 and Japan’s ALOS-2.

Space-based AIS has continued to expand and is projected for rapid growth in the years ahead. Belton pointed out that space AIS can assist in eliminating safe objects, allowing authorities to focus on non-emitters or “dark targets.”

Management of the maritime elec-tronic battlefield against a sophisticated opponent is another critical challenge, and Lockheed Martin has developed a new software test platform to mimic naval environments and validate intelligence, communication and sensor systems. The test bed has been internally funded to

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demonstrate ISR technologies developed by Lockheed and its partners, according to Dave Weddel, director of maritime ISR strategy.

The test bed is now mostly validating technologies for visualization, data fusion and command and control to support elec-tronic warfare battle management for the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. “We want to see if we are meeting the gaps identified by PEO C4I [Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence],” Weddel explained, adding that the test bed is also intended to be a central portal for Lockheed and the mili-tary to showcase new solutions.

Test bed hardware and software reside at SPAWAR in San Diego, Calif., but can be linked to other Lockheed facilities in Denver, Colo., Syracuse, N.Y. and the Aegis Combat System facilities in Moorestown, N.J. “This means we can link both mature and less-developed technologies and test the interface,” Weddel explained.

For example, Lockheed will be able to validate that new technologies work with Aegis, the F-35 Lightning II and Lockheed-developed space systems.

For battle management of electronic warfare, the test bed is validating technol-ogies to fuse both national data and tac-tical data onboard ships. These include sensor and SIGINT data, fused and then pushed to aircraft and shore stations. Some battle-management aids are also being tested.

Lockheed started with a list of C4 ISR gaps identified by Rear Admiral Paul Becker, director for intelligence on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Weddel said, and then examined its portfolio to see what might fill these gaps. Becker’s staff has observed the tests and advised Lockheed on where it should continue to explore solutions and where it was off the mark.

Melanie Lang, who works with the company’s naval customers, said Lockheed will continue emphasizing electro-mag-netic battle management. “The chief of naval operations wants to control the electro-magnetic battle space and fight through it. That means understanding blue emissions and evading red emissions,” she said.

To do that, the Navy must fuse data from many different sensors to assemble a good picture of the entire electromagnetic spectrum. With that picture, the Navy can

coordinate kinetic and non-kinetic fire all through the battlespace.

So Lockheed will continue to work on key naval gaps, and will also use the plat-form to see if the data analytic tools it has developed for intelligence agencies might be useful to the Navy. For example, data mining and predictive analytics might be useful in forecasting the maneuvers of an adversary.

“This is our vision of the future. These technologies have been funded by the intelligence community, and we’d like to see if they are applicable to the Navy and other services,” Weddel said.

uNderwAter threAts

New tools are also becoming avail-able to track potential underwater threats. Naval forces are major beneficiaries of small underwater remotely operated vehi-cles (ROVs), said Mark Fleming, who han-dles military and government sales for ROV maker VideoRay.

Instead of divers searching for, inspect-ing and identifying potential mine-like objects, man-portable smart, miniature ROVs can often do these dirty and danger-ous tasks.

ROVs consume little power and can be easily deployed from piers, rigs, ships and small inflatable boats, Fleming noted. “They can be deployed in sea states where using larger machines or humans is too dangerous and cumbersome.” The thrust-to-weight ratio of ROVs means they can handle significant currents, and

autonomous controls enable precise, way-point-based navigation.

ROVs can combine GPS data and a phased-array Doppler velocity log in a dynamic positioning computer that trans-lates mission requirements to thruster commands for inspection and identifica-tion with video and sonar images. Geo-referenced video and sonar data, including latitude and longitude on each frame, means ROV results can be recorded in a geographic information system, refer-enced and replayed, with targets readily revisited in the future.

ROVs are thus ideal for replacing or supplementing current mine-hunting and mine-sweeping technologies: surface vessels, airborne squadrons, underwater vehicles, divers and marine mammals. “Autonomous mini-ROVs allow personnel to collect real-time information and imag-ery while maintaining a safe distance from hazardous underwater locations and min-imizing diver time-on-target in the water,” Fleming said.

ROVs also can clear false alarms due to natural and man-made clutter that delay searches and let divers perform mission-critical tasks.

In tactical situations, when a sus-pected mine is detected, an autonomous mini ROV could be launched immedi-ately from almost any platform. It would then conduct planned trajectory searches or user-redirected investigations to iden-tify suspected mines. Locations would be marked and stored along with geo-refer-enced video and sonar.

Lockheed Martin recently demonstrated their maritime test bed, which offers significant improvements in advanced sensing, data integration, decision support, electromagnetic support operations, enhanced targeting and fire control and non-kinetic fires. [Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin]

GIF 1 3 . 5 | 11

Taking the concept of maritime domain

awareness to another level, a new satel-

lite-based monitoring system is promising

to provide instantaneous information on the

location of every significant ship anywhere on

the world’s oceans.

Based on an alliance between SATCOM

giant Harris and exactEarth, a provider of ship

tracking information, the new service will offer

location information with moment-by-moment

accuracy needed by defense and security

forces to carry out interdiction, rescue and

other missions on the high seas.

The services take advantage of exact-

Earth’s proven and patented signal de-

collision detection technology and Harris’

expertise in satellite-hosted payloads,

advanced radio frequency communications

and satellite antenna solutions. The services

are made possible by a sensor that is based

on Harris’ AppSTAR reconfigurable payload

technology and hosted on the Iridium NEXT

satellite constellation, which will have a total

of 68 satellites to greatly expand global mari-

time traffic coverage versus the eight satellites

used today.

New AIS-based data products and ser-

vices are expected to be available in 2017,

once the Iridium NEXT satellites are on

orbit. Harris will be the exclusive provider

to the U.S. government of AIS products

and services produced under the alliance,

including exactEarth’s exact AIS product

portfolio, while exactEarth will serve all other

global markets.

The foundation of the new service is the

Automatic Identification System (AIS), which

is mandated by international maritime author-

ities for ships above a certain size or that

carry passengers. Every few seconds, the

AIS device emits a radio transmission indicat-

ing the ship’s location, speed, direction and

other factors.

Designed initially to avoid ship collisions,

the AIS was limited by its reliance on radio

transmissions, which enabled data to be

exchanged only with vessels or ground sta-

tions within a radius of about 50 miles. AIS

data were widely used to manage traffic

at port facilities, but could not cover vast

swathes of ocean.

In response to that gap, exactEarth, a

spinout from space equipment manufacturer

ComDev, developed a method for capturing

the radio transmissions by orbiting satellites,

which relay the location data to the ground for

processing and distribution. Introduced about

five years ago, the exactEarth Satellite AIS

data service now has a fleet of seven satellites

as well as ground stations to receive the data.

The “secret sauce” of the system, accord-

ing to Graham Stickler, vice president of

products and services for exactEarth, is a

patented set of signal processing algorithms

that are able to detect individual messages

from the signal noise collected from as far as

600 kilometers in space.

The radio-based AIS is designed so that

no two ships within the same regional “cell”

can send out a message at exactly the same

time. With its worldwide coverage, however,

exactEarth had to develop algorithms to sort

out all the many simultaneous transmissions

of location data from individual ships.

“When we look down on the Earth’s

oceans, we see many of these cells all at once

within the satellite range,” Stickler observed.

“So we get signal collision, when two ships

transmit similar information at the same time

on the same frequency. What makes us differ-

ent is our patented algorithms that ‘de-collide’

all of the messages.

“It’s like sitting in the rafters of a large

dining hall. There are hundreds of conver-

sations going on below you, but all you can

hear is noise. Our job is to collect all of that

noise and then decipher all of the individual

conversations that are going on. The end

result is a global view of the world’s shipping,”

he added.

Still, even with exactEarth’s international

network of receiving sites, some informa-

tion was delayed, since it could only be sent

when the satellite was in contact with the

ground station. The solution to that short-

fall appeared in the form of the new Iridium

constellation, which will have enough units

to cover the planet completely, and enough

room on board each satellite to house the

needed exactEarth/Harris equipment.

“There are two especially important things

about the Iridium constellation. It is designed

so that every part of the world will be covered

all the time, with no gaps. At the moment, with

seven satellites, there are sometimes areas of

ocean that are not covered, and you have to

wait for another satellite to come around. With

the Iridium constellation, we will have total

coverage all the time,” Stickler said.

“The other thing about the Iridium constel-

lation is that all the satellites are linked, which

means you don’t have to worry about whether

you are over a ground station, because one of

the satellites always will be, and the data will

get transferred from satellite to satellite, and

then to the ground,” he said, adding, “There

will now be continuous real-time coverage of

the world’s oceans.”

Having the new data in real time will pro-

vide quicker updates on what is happening,

Stickler said. “If two ships are rendezvous-

ing, we can customize our solution to alert

the customer that they are rendezvousing

right now, so you can dispatch an asset to

the scene immediately. With the current sys-

tem, in some areas you may have to wait

for a satellite to come over. It’s the same for

search and rescue—there’s a ship in distress

right now.”

By Harrison Donnelly, GIF Editor

www.GIF-kmi.com

Tracking Ships in Real Time


There is also an urgent need to search, monitor and fuse actionable informa-tion on Q-routes, the preplanned ship-ping lanes in mined or potentially mined waters, as well as piers and littoral areas throughout the world. ROVs could also be extremely helpful here, Fleming said.

VideoRay makes a range of ROVs, including its CoPilot Reacquire and Identify (CPRI), which is designed to sup-port amphibious landings, mine coun-termeasures, underwater forensics and harbor and shipping-lane clearance. The CPRI allows operators to specify a partic-ular area to be searched and enables the ROV to autonomously maneuver to pre-designated underwater locations and per-form the search. It is easily transported by small boat or rigid-hulled inflatable boat to a secure launch point.

This ROV identifies suspect mines with high-definition sonar and low-light video, allowing operators to maintain a safe standoff distance. During a search, the operator just points and clicks, and CPRI automatically goes to the target, hovers and holds station. The operator’s cockpit receives ROV telemetry, including video, water temperature and ROV health indica-tors. Sonar images are overlaid on a chart showing ROV depth and altitude.

AutoNomous vessels

If a mini ROV could be useful for intelligence, so, too, could technology for making many small vessels autonomous. That is what Leidos is working on, said Thomas Green, vice president of maritime solutions.

Leidos is developing true maritime autonomy, so surface and subsurface ves-sels can navigate safely and execute a vari-ety of missions for extended periods at sea, with no person onboard or even in the loop. Maritime autonomy could be a dis-ruptive technology, Green suggested, by allowing the Navy to offload dull, dirty and dangerous missions from capital ships such as guided-missile destroyers and nuclear-powered attack submarines.

“Autonomous ships and undersea ves-sels can carry a variety of ISR payloads and can be easily reconfigured via modularity to execute desired missions for extended periods at sea with no people on board or controlling the vessels,” he added.

Leidos’s autonomy suite has been tested extensively in a shore-based integration

laboratory with more than 22,000 runs conducted in over 750 scenarios. The suite has also been tested at sea on a 40-foot workboat that executed more than 100 scenarios while complying with nauti-cal rules in encounters with other ves-sels and avoiding navigational hazards and shoal waters.

In one scenario, the test craft com-pleted a 35-nautical-mile voyage in restricted waters, avoiding other ships, submerged hazards, shoal waters and buoys, all with no preplanned waypoints or person in the loop. “The craft had only a digital chart of the area in its memory and inputs to the autonomy system from its COTS sensors to make decisions on course and speed,” Green said.

Due to a distributed open-architecture design, Leidos autonomy tools can be fit-ted to both surface ships and submersibles regardless of sensor type, control system or their manufacturer. “Robust interfaces allow for relatively easy integration of sen-sors and software from other manufactur-ers,” Green explained.

Many competitive autonomous mari-time capabilities require preplanned way-points or a person remotely controlling the vessel, he noted. But the Leidos sys-tem observes its environment with COTS sensors, builds a model and compares that model with digital charts in mem-ory to plan paths. It also senses other ves-sels and obeys nautical rules for avoiding collisions.

Leidos continues to challenge its auton-omy system, both in the lab and at sea, with more complex scenarios. “Avoiding multiple interfering contacts and avoiding collision with vessels displaying adversar-ial behaviors offer challenging test events to be worked through,” Green noted. The company is adding vessel health monitor-ing to the system and enhancing controls for extended sea missions.

Leidos is also active on several other intelligence fronts. It is developing a deep-water, portable, expendable undersea sur-veillance system to provide responsive undersea surveillance to theater command-ers. The system would allow the Navy to employ sensors on demand in areas of interest for robust undersea surveillance.

“This system has been tested at sea with very promising results obtained,” Green said, adding that sea tests with deployment of tactical nodes are expected in the near future. The system can be deployed from any vessel of sufficient size for its modules.

In addition, Leidos is developing syn-thetic signature generation-based train-ing and analysis systems for the Navy. These systems train Navy operators to use their sensors in complex littoral environ-ments against quiet diesel and nuclear submarines. O

For more information, contact GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly at harrisond@kmimediagroup.

com or search our online archives for related stories at www.gif-kmi.com.

Navy SEALS participated in the recent test of an ISR system aboard a Navy experimental vessel. [Photo courtesy of Raytheon]


An applied research organization acquired and recently re-launched by intelligence services provider Vencore to deliver gen-eration-after-next research and engineering solutions has won two contracts for innovative research from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The contracts, which focus on the reliability of military IP net-works and the security of wireless networks, reflect the mission of Vencore Labs to enable government agencies, utilities and commer-cial enterprises to fuel the future growth and development of com-munications, data analytics and cybersecurity.

From smart grids to smartphones, intelligent highways to intel-ligent battlefields, executives say Vencore Labs exceeds the pace of traditional development models and delivers high-tech research, consulting and engineering that can be practically applied to solve real-world problems for its clients.

“Vencore Labs enables us to look beyond today and uncover new solutions and capabilities to solve tomorrow’s challenges,” said Mac Curtis, president and CEO of Vencore. “Our scientists, engineers and analysts are not only delivering solutions that no one else can, they are going beyond proof of concept and taking those solutions to market.”

Located in Basking Ridge, N.J., Vencore Labs operated most recently under the name Applied Communications Sciences (ACS). In 2013, Vencore acquired ACS, which employs more than 200 sci-entists, engineers and analysts, of whom 55 percent of the tech-nical team members hold doctoral degrees and 50 percent are patent inventors.

“Our team delivers the most advanced technologies and solu-tions,” said Steve Omick, Ph.D., president, Vencore Labs. “For exam-ple, our SecureSMART technology is a comprehensive cybersecurity solution for smart-grid networks, which helps prevent and stop the more than 10,000 cyber-attacks each month at utilities. And that is just one case of innovation already happening at Vencore Labs.”

In October 2014, the company was awarded the Cyber Security Applied Research and Experimentation Partner Program under the direction of the Army Research Lab (ARL). The five-year, $48.5 mil-lion single-award ID/IQ contract highlighted Vencore Labs’ work in cyber-experimentation approaches in order to validate and transi-tion basic research being performed in parallel through the ARL Collaborative Research Alliance by a consortium of universities.

dArpA reseArch

The first DARPA contract announced by Vencore Labs was an $11.8 million agreement aimed at bolstering the resiliency and reli-ability of the military’s IP networks. The work is a critical com-ponent of DARPA’s Edge-Directed Cyber Technologies for Reliable Mission Communication (EdgeCT) program, a key element of which

is to mitigate a wide range of cyber-communication failures and attacks in real time.

“By its own definition, DARPA is looking for truly ‘revolutionary advances’ in this area,” said Omick. “In this cyber application, we will be using our particular expertise in mission-aware networking and edge-based resilient communications to develop breakthroughs on several fronts.” Specific focal points of the Vencore Labs work include techniques for automated discovery and characterization of degraded network performance, assigning network resources to communications in a distributed and globally optimal fashion and providing edge-based resilience for critical communications by dynamically altering protocol stack configurations in response to changing network conditions.

Under the contract, Vencore Labs is a performer in Technical Area One (TA1) of the EdgeCT program. The focus of TA1 is devel-oping an end-to-end system that integrates revolutionary technol-ogies for real-time network analytics, holistic decision systems and dynamically configurable protocol stacks to mitigate the effects of core network disruption for critical communications.

In addition, a $4.8 million DARPA contract seeks Vencore Lab’s help in protecting wireless networks against attacks on the control plane, which includes the networking as well as the data link layers.

The work is the second phase of DARPA’s Wireless Network Defense program. Vencore Labs was also an awardee on the first phase, which was focused on technology development. During Phase 2, the focus will be on applying technologies developed dur-ing Phase 1 to heterogeneous wireless networks that are relevant to the U.S. military.

“Securing wireless networks is incredibly complex, and DARPA is renowned for attacking these types of hard-to-solve problems,” Omick noted. “Vencore Labs has decades of experience in working with these types of networks and finding solutions for the types of issues that they present.”

The primary focal points of Vencore Labs’ work include technol-ogies for detecting network attacks, mitigating the impact of these attacks and disseminating information about unreliable wireless network elements across the network so that other nodes can take appropriate defensive action.

Vencore Labs’ approach is notable in that its output will be appli-cable to multiple network technologies and able to protect these dis-parate networks using a common defensive framework. In addition, it will deliver a wireless defense framework that is robust in the face of attacks, has a very high accuracy rate and imposes very little over-head on the network. O

veNcore re-lAuNches Applied reseArch orGANizAtioN ANd wiNs dArpA coNtrActs.



Labs Tackle Network

by hArrisoN doNNelly

Gif editor


INDUSTRY RASTER

Saab and DigitalGlobe have announced the creation of a joint venture, Vricon, to produce photo-realistic 3-D products and digital elevation models globally for enterprise and government geospatial markets with unmatched coverage and delivery timelines. Vricon combines Saab’s unique 3-D tech-nology and expertise with DigitalGlobe’s archive of billions of square kilometers of commercial satellite imagery. The Vricon joint venture will establish high-scale production capabilities that will produce highly accurate photorealistic 3-D products and elevation data of the Earth, accessible via its unique visual-ization platform and standard-based data formats. Vricon serves the entire professional geospatial market, with an initial focus on defense, security and infrastructure. Vricon’s technology enables imagery content to accurately represent all visible objects on the Earth in 3-D, and its products provide customers with unmatched value and utility, superior coverage relative to aerial-derived elevation models and supe-rior fidelity and availability relative to other satel-lite-derived models.

Craig Brower;[email protected]

Release Boosts Place-Name Search Capabilities

ClearTerra has released the latest version of its flagship LocateXT product line. LocateXT software discovers place names, geocoordinates and other critical informa-tion within unstructured data and places it instantly into common geospatial applica-tions such as Esri ArcGIS platforms, Google Earth and open source. LocateXT tech-nology rapidly scans unstructured textual data and transforms location information into structured spatial output for GIS and other spatial viewing platforms. Along with robust geocoordinate recognition and iden-tification of user-defined place names, other critical information is extracted, such as

contextual data, custom keyword search/tagging, temporal information and more. Many types of unstructured documents, files and even social media content can be processed with the results sent directly to desktop, server or cloud-based geospa-tial platforms. The latest release builds upon the existing ability to extract and map geocoordinates and place names by greatly expanding the speed and scalability of the Custom Locations module—giving users unprecedented power and control in finding place names.

Jeff Wilson;[email protected]

Geofeedia, a provider of location-based social media monitoring, intel-ligence and analysis, has released version 4.0 of its platform. With new capa-bilities and features, the updated platform makes it even easier to cut through the massive amount of social data to understand social media signals in real-time at a specific place. Geofeedia enables the use of location-tagged data to discover, engage and analyze content across Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Picasa, Flickr, Sina Weibo and other social channels. With the new Geofeedia iOS app, users can gather location-based social intelligence in the areas directly around their current locations, create or monitor any loca-tion while mobile, and access a streamer view of location-tagged social media posts on the go. Geofeedia fills in the data gap where most social listening tools fall short, and empowers organizations with a dynamic way to pinpoint the critical signals found using location-tagged social media posts not only based on keywords and hashtags, but also images and even sentiment.

R.J. Talyor;[email protected]

Social Media Platform Enables Location-Based Analysis

Joint Venture Offers Photo-Realistic 3-D

Products

Offering a window into the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s hopes and plans for future technology, the NGA’s Innovative GEOINT App Provider Program (IGAPP) lists priority areas for which the agency is seeking to acquire geospatial applications from commercial developers. NGA recently announced a contract with TASC, an Engility company, to manage and operate IGAPP, which facilitates the delivery of the application creations to the NGA GEOINT App Store. The program’s web site, https://www.igapp.com, identifies current vendor opportunities in the areas of disaster response, air, sea and land operations, and geonames. The last category, for example, describes NGA as seeking “a mobile app that helps people quickly find locations worldwide while considering the person’s search preferences, location, and the cultural context of the location. The app searches the U.S. government’s worldwide location data (called a gazetteer) that can be supplemented by other sources of locations and interaction with mapping applications.”

Vendor Opportunities Highlight NGA Needs


Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

InQuisient, a provider of advanced data management solutions, has introduced two new tools and enhancements to its platform to help government decision makers create order from chaos. InQuisient’s enterprise data management platform helps govern-ment organizations more efficiently manage data calls and large projects. The Project

Portfolio Insight tool is the intelligent “big picture” solution for any large project portfolio management effort. Users can track, review and contribute to the management of numerous projects within a broader portfolio. There is a clear chain of custody and accountability. The Data Call Central tool streamlines the data call process, and lets organizations move

away from the days of multiple spreadsheets, SharePoint sites and technical ticketing systems. It facilitates the efficient collection of information from many parts and people within an organization rapidly and with a clear chain of custody.

Sandy Levine;[email protected]

BAE Systems and AllSource Analysis, a commercial imagery intelligence company, have announced a stra-tegic alliance to bring multi-source imagery analysis products and content to a wide variety of commercial and governmental industries for the first time. AllSource Analysis will leverage BAE Systems Geospatial eXploita-tion Products’ cloud-hosted exploitation tools to support the AllSource Analyst Network. BAE Systems GXP is an imagery software suite for the creation and delivery of highly accurate geospatial and intelligence data. GXP’s cloud-hosted geospatial software as a service offer-ings include GXP Xplorer, GXP WebView and SOCET GXP, which provide an integrated solution to opti-mize analysis workflows from discovery to exploitation, product generation and dissemination. Together, these technologies will serve as the foundation for compre-hensive image and video analysis, data management and geospatial production capabilities for the distributed network and product suite, as well as lay the ground-work for the next paradigm in cloud-based content provisioning for commercial imagery intelligence.

Chuck Herring;[email protected]

BlackSky Global, a satellite imaging company, has revealed a plan to provide high-resolution images of the globe at an unparal-leled cost and frequency. The company intends to deploy six satellites in 2016 and have a full 60-satellite imaging constellation by 2019, bringing “satellite imaging as a service” to businesses, organizations and governments that cannot or do not wish to capitalize on their own constellations. Traditionally it takes days or weeks to receive a commercial satellite image due to limited imaging opportunities and priority constraints.

With 60 satellites in unique orbits, BlackSky’s constellation will shorten this time to a couple hours or less, enabling customers to observe and monitor basic infrastructure across multiple industry sectors. BlackSky is developing a Web-scale software platform that will allow customers to request, receive and interact with its satellite imagery via the Internet. The company will offer its high-resolution imagery at less than $100 per 30-square-kilometer image, approximately

one-tenth the cost of the current industry average.

New Tools Enhance Data Management Platform

Satellite Constellation to Offer Imaging as a Service

Alliance Provides Multi-Source Imagery

AnalysisOrbit Logic’s SpyMeSat mobile app version 3.0

is now available on iTunes and Google Play. This latest version of SpyMeSat allows smart phone users to task a high-resolution imaging satellite to take a picture of a user-specified location.

SpyMeSat provides real-time imaging satellite awareness, on-demand access to archive satellite imagery and now the ability to request new tasking directly from a mobile device. The mobile app already included the ability to preview and purchase the most-recent, highest-resolution commercial satellite archive imagery of any location through an easy and affordable in-app purchase process. The entire process of preview, select, purchase and delivery of archived imagery can be completed in seconds, delivering satellite imagery for any loca-tion on demand. And with “the world’s longest selfie stick” new tasking feature, any mobile user can now task a satellite to take a new picture if archive imagery does not meet their need. The user specifies the location, size, and timeframe and receives tasking status updates for tasking request acceptance, exact imaging time, imagery processing and delivery status.

Prices for new tasking start at $500.

Mobile App Offers Imaging Satellite Ordering

TASC.COM

Collecting data alone does not guarantee quality intelligence. Without the proper analysis and

detection, the intelligence buried within remains obscure and inaccessible. TASC can help you quickly

access data, analyze it and produce the required intelligence needed to make informed decisions.

WHAT IS BIG DATAWITHOUT BIG INSIGHT?


Susan (Sue) Gordon became the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s sixth deputy director on January 1, 2015, after more than 25 years of service with the Central Intelligence Agency. As deputy director of NGA, she assists the director in leading the agency and in managing the National System of Geospatial-Intelligence.

Gordon previously served concurrently as director of the CIA’s Information Operations Center and as the CIA director’s senior adviser on cyber. She was responsible for fully integrating advanced cyber-capabilities into all of the CIA’s mission areas, while protecting against the cyber threat to the CIA’s information, operations and officers.

Gordon began her career with the CIA in 1980 as an analyst in the Office of Scientific and Weapons Research in the Directorate of Intelligence, responsible for technical analysis of foreign space and missile systems. She later held several engineering development positions in the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology, working both national systems and new concepts before moving into a succession of analytic and technical man-agement positions. She served later as the executive assistant to the executive director of the CIA and then became the architect and first director of the Office of Advanced Analytic Tools.

In 1998, Gordon was named special assistant to the direc-tor of central intelligence and was responsible for designing and implementing In-Q-Tel, a private, non-profit company whose pri-mary purpose is to deliver innovative technology solutions for the agency and the intelligence community. Following a break in service to raise her children, Gordon was appointed director of special activities in the Directorate of Science and Technology, focusing on supporting counterproliferation and counterterror-ism efforts. She was also the intelligence community’s focal point for related biological research, development and engineering capabilities for collection and operations. Gordon served as dep-uty chief of the Information Operations Center from September 2009 to December 2011 and then as the CIA’s director for Support from January 2012 to November 2013.

Q: You’re the sixth deputy director of NGA; how would you describe your role within the agency? What are your priorities and what keeps you awake at night?

A: My role is simple, really: to work with the director to advance the agency’s vision and strategy on all fronts with the simple goal

of achieving consequence for our customers; to relentlessly drive actions throughout the organization that are necessary to effect that outcome; and to be particularly focused on the introduc-tion and use of the technical solutions that can make our future happen. This last point drives my focus on really advancing our approach to acquisition and creating new opportunities for part-nership with industry and academia.

What keeps me awake at night? We have a tremendous work-force that won’t let us fail. There is a window of moment that we can take advantage of right now, and the greatest risk we face is time. The world has always evolved, but today the speed of innova-tion and adoption is unprecedented. Information changes nearly instantaneously. Time and distances are shorter. Consequently, we have to embrace change. This impacts our national security interests. In order to stay ahead of our adversaries and ensure the most accurate and relevant intelligence reporting, we have to be agile, adopt new technology, adapt our methods, and change to protect our nation.

Q: Speaking of the intelligence community as a whole, how would you define your role with respect to the IC?

A: The easy answer, that happens to be true, is that NGA deliv-ers content, context, conveyance and consequence to the intel-ligence community. If I use this construct and apply it to

Susan GordonDeputy Director

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Innovation AllyAdvancing Acquisition and Creating New Partnerships

Q&AQ&A


my priorities, it’s to help effect the Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise (IC ITE) and to deliver GEOINT services.

IC ITE is a multi-agency effort, and within it, NGA has two distinct responsibilities: provide the common IC desktop envi-ronment and enterprise management, which we co-lead with the Defense Intelligence Agency and geospatial services. We’ve built IC ITE to include unclassified and classified domains to acceler-ate our integration of traditional geospatial content and analysis with non-traditional sources like social media and commercial imagery. IC ITE integration furthers our opportunity to collab-orate with our IC colleagues to explore and adopt new methods and techniques for conducting analysis. IC ITE allows us to share common services, infrastructure, license and more—all acceler-ating collaboration. Today, most of NGA’s workforce is a part of the common operating environment.

GEOINT services include everything that helps our customers get what they need from us sooner and easier than ever before. It is our framework. It is how we provide content and services to our customers and how NGA customers can share content, solutions and best practices with us and the community.

We are shifting our role as a service provider. Instead of deliv-ering geospatial and application silos as we have in the past, today we focus on the seamless discovery of content, regardless of physical location. All customers on all domains have access to geospatial data and mission services, providing the founda-tion for common processing and analytic capabilities across the intelligence community.

As of the beginning of July, NGA has had access to the unclas-sified Amazon Web services infrastructure, allowing NGA pro-grams to develop and deploy in an unclassified environment with the same baseline software currently used on our classified net-works. We’ve closed two data silos and have moved a significant portion of our data into the cloud.

Q: You recently asked industry and your internal team to grade NGA on industry interactions and acquisition. How are you encouraging innovation and shaping acquisition?

A: We know that we have work to do, but we are doing that work. We need to improve the reach and depth of our acquisition capa-bilities, from the quality/content/clarity of our requests for pro-posals to improving our industry engagements. And we need to make sure that our new strategy is reflected in every new acquisi-tion. Good things happen when we know and communicate what we want. Mission drives.

A couple of months ago, I issued an open letter challenging our workforce to build flexibility into all acquisition. This let-ter was not about telling the workforce to break rules. Instead I encouraged the workforce to take full advantage of all exist-ing acquisition flexibilities. We can eliminate unnecessary paper-work. We can leverage the Small Business Administration socioeconomic program. And we can maximize enterprise licens-ing agreements to make technologies readily available across con-tracts and within NGA.

NGA has a symbiotic relationship with industry and aca-demia. Our history of partnerships speaks for itself, and my his-tory of partnership leads to my belief that we will only succeed together. I am all in on Team GEOINT.

We created an industry innovation advocate this year, and his mission is to understand the challenges we face and to iden-tify solutions. And we created the GEOINT Solutions Marketplace (GSM) to share, explore and shape ideas and solutions. GSM offers transparency into our vision and market research and the solu-tions we may need to reach solution.

We will be increasingly challenged by the speed of innovation and the demands for agility. We need partners who understand this and help us find ways forward. We have the advantage of pur-pose and perseverance. Industry and academia have the advan-tage of innovation and energy. The combination of all of these factors is magic.

Q: You have a distinguished career driving innovation and agency change within the intelligence community. What are some of the most important experiences that shape your approach to your current position?

A: Thanks for the distinguished part—I certainly have had a great, long career that has afforded me some opportunities to both effect change and deliver new capability.

Three seminal experiences come to mind, and I draw on them almost daily in this job. I have been involved in acquisitions rang-ing from huge collection systems to a few lines of unique code. This taught me about both rigor and flexibility in acquisition. I delivered the concept that became In-Q-Tel—from idea to incor-poration by a group of private citizens. This taught me a lot of lessons about how innovation happens in government—and that we can make big ideas happen in a very short time with enough energy and the right partners. Finally, my career at CIA taught me that entrepreneurship can exist in a bureaucracy and that the power of coalition is a stunning force.

Mostly, I think I bring with me a belief that anything can be done if you work with energy, skill and a clear-minded view of the outcome.

Q: Director Robert Cardillo released NGA’s new strategy last month, with the mission: “We strengthen the nation through our command of geospatial intelligence.” How are you enabling this mission?

A: I love the concept of old power and new power that Director Cardillo discussed during his keynote address at the this year’s GEOINT Symposium. In a recent Harvard Business Review arti-cle, Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms talk about the strength of “old power,” calling it “closed, inaccessible and leader-driven.” The intelligence community has effectively functioned like this for years, but today’s global environment demands more from us. Heimans and Timms believe “new power” is made by many: “It is open, participatory and peer-driven.” New power is increased through partnering and collaboration, and I believe that is what this moment demands.

In terms of our role as a service provider, it is our responsi-bility to provide a framework—geospatial reference—for all data and activities in a manner that advances understanding. Every piece of intelligence has some sort of geographic aspect to it—whether a phone call, Internet message, bomb threat or human asset—and coloring in those aspects of the intelligence picture is what NGA does best.


In terms of technology and technology acquisition, this means we have to think more about creating the architecture and environment that will accept the new as soon as it proves useful to our outcome.

In terms of customers, this means ser-vicing our traditional national security partners and customers as they need to be serviced, and with the added value allowed by emergent open content. It means envi-sioning new partners and consumers who are engaged in broader security issues of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Finally, we must learn to take risks—appropriately. To achieve what we want in the future, we have to recognize that we may not be able to do everything we did in the past and everything we currently do. We listen to what our customers demand, we understand what the environment allows and affords, we invest in excellence in our craft and then we must drive to build to the future.

Q: One of NGA’s priorities is “succeeding in the open.” How is NGA accomplishing this today and what do you see for the future?

A: I’ve mentioned taking risks and embracing change, and we are. We recently announced the GEOINT Pathfinder initiative. It is a deliberate experiment to challenge traditional intelligence paradigms. Today, our current process has a classified informa-tion base supplemented by unclassified and open-source data. Tomorrow, can we shift that paradigm and have an unclassified information base supplemented by classified information? Do we require every employee and support staff to maintain clear-ances and work in classified infrastructure to solve real intelli-gence problems? One of the metrics to succeeding in the open will require answering these questions.

Succeeding in the open also includes sharing information and capabilities with a global community of experts. We were the first intelligence agency to deliver source code into GitHub, allowing everyone to have access to some of our tools. We know the global community benefits from this commitment. Our tools are in use by individuals and organizations that have previously not used them. For example, the city of Huntsville, Ala., uses our GeoQ tool to enable disaster response users to quickly iden-tify impacted areas, providing the ability to task and disperse response resources appropriately, all while recording and report-ing the location, well-being and tactical actions of the responders in real-time across the response spectrum.

We will keep releasing relevant and beneficial tools and infor-mation that enable the geospatial community. But beyond that, there are other aspects of succeeding in the open that we must pursue. We must create the ability to flow talent as easily as we are working to flow ideas and technology. We must be leaders in information, data and people security because protection is never passé, but we must always adapt to the environment.

Q: And more broadly? What additional opportunities do you see for the future?

A: There is incredible energy in the community, enterprise and industry right now. People want to join, making substantial con-tributions as part of a geospatial revolution. There are so many opportunities that inspire innovation and creativity that I haven’t seen before. It’s our seismic shift. We want to take advantage, growing and building the community, because we grow ourselves.

We are in the process of remaking GEOINT R&D. That means we’re not only looking at the technology of today, but also how we reshape our R&D process to predict, acquire and use emerg-ing technology faster than we ever have before. We know that we can’t wait for relevant technology to be widely available before we adopt them. The community’s energy develops capability faster and faster every day.

In June, I attended a local hackathon, one of many commu-nity hacking events that happened nationwide over the month. This one happened to be focused around a GEOINT challenge, understanding the spread of diseases given constrained data sets. Open community hacking events bring together individuals with diverse skills, from software developers to data analysts to story-tellers and others. The participants roll up their sleeves and work together to find solutions. The community, energetically com-ing together, builds solutions. The solutions were interesting, but more importantly, how they got to the solutions represented new ways to think.

I think that there is a great opportunity for us to stretch inno-vation today, forcing us to think and work differently. All of this opens up even more opportunities that we may not have imag-ined for tomorrow. O

As NGA deputy director, Susan Gordon has been a vigorous proponent of advancing the agency’s approach to acquisition and creating new opportunities for partnership. [Photo courtesy of NGA]

Dr. troy e. MeinkAssistant DNI Systems and

Resource Analyses

rita SampsonDirector

IC Equal Opportunity and Diversity

2015

TRUSTED ADVISOR ON INTELLIGENCE PORTFOLIOS, PROGRAMS, PRACTICES AND STRATEGIES

TASC.COM

James r. clapperDirector of National

Intelligence

Stephanie O’SullivanPrincipal Deputy DNI

William evaninaNational

Counterintelligence Executive

alex JoelCivil Liberties

Protection Officer

Deborah KircherAssistant DNI

Chief Human Capital Office

richard fravelAssistant DNI

Chief Financial Officer

charles McculloughInspector General of

the IC

Dawn eilenbergerAssistant DNI

Policy & Strategy


J. alan royalAssistant DNI

Acting IC Chief Information Officer

robert littGeneral Counsel

Michael DempseyDeputy DNI

Intelligence Integration

edward gistaroAssistant Deputy DNI

Intelligence Integration

army lt. gen. theodore c. Nicholas

Assistant DNI Partner Engagement

Brian haleDirector

Public Affairs Office

Jeffrey SmithActing Director

National Counterproliferation Center

TRUSTED ADVISOR ON INTELLIGENCE PORTFOLIOS, PROGRAMS, PRACTICES AND STRATEGIES

TASC.COM

Susan gibson Designated Agency Ethics

Official, Principal Deputy General Counsel

Kshemendra PaulProgram Manager

Information Sharing Environment

Nicholas rasmussenDirector

National Counterterrorism Center

Kevin MeinersAssistant DNI

Acquisition, Technology and Facilities


The intelligence community is on the precipice of transforma-tional change driven by the incredible volume, velocity and verac-ity of data, as well as by budget pressures and the need to do things more efficiently. But the greatest opportunity for change lies in the Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise (IC ITE), according to Cathy Johnston, director for analysis for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

Johnston, who chairs the Mission Users Group monitoring progress of the ongoing effort to restruc-ture IC networks, offered an update on the proj-ect at the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s GEOINT 2015 Symposium in June.

The initiative has already led to significant changes in the information networks of the 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, including installation of common desktop systems on thousands of workstations. Beyond that, however, the project’s new architecture has the potential to enable the IC to rethink its business processes completely, mov-ing to processes that optimize for a fully integrated community, Johnston said.

“IC ITE started off as the convergence of 17 separate networks into a single one. There is an incredible amount of power in not hav-ing separate networks, and sharing common services. The platform

for a lot of that infrastructure has been built, but that is just the bare bones of what IC ITE brings. From a mission user’s perspec-tive, what it allows me to think about is a single data store where data from different kinds of sensors is commingled and accessible

across a wide variety of applications. That provides a richness in our findings and mission outcomes that is not possible to have when you have the applica-tions tied to separate data stores,” she explained.

As Johnston noted, the IC ITE has also led to the establishment of an IC computing cloud, which comprises both a commercially built component and a government-built GovCloud component. “Both of them bring different strengths to the architecture. You can think of it as a hybrid cloud, but what we’re finding is that the optimal solutions involve leverag-ing the best from both clouds.”

As an example, Johnston pointed to a current effort in which the same application searches across four separate, extremely large data sources. “Right now, that requires a person to look at each of those four tied sets of data and applications and manually figure out what the connections are across them,” she said. “A more powerful way to do that is to pull the data and have a relatively lightweight application that can dive into the data pool and see across all of the data sets to get the right answer, which is much more complete.

New Architecture hAs the poteNtiAl to eNAble the commuNity to rethiNk its busiNess processes completely. by hArrisoN doNNelly, Gif editor

Cathy Johnston


“One really good aspect of IC ITE is that you get the data in a data pool that is accessible to everyone,” Johnston continued. “Another awesome aspect is that we have uniform access controls. You don’t have 17 different networks with different standards as to who gets access. You have uniform standards and tagging to do that, which gives you security benefits as well as all-source analy-sis benefits. It allows you to audit and provides for a more secure environment.”

But along with rethinking its processes and taking advantage of what the new architecture can do, the IC also needs to lever-age big data methodologies and use nontraditional data sources, Johnston said.

“Our traditional reliance on manual curation of only intel-ligence-collected data means that we have introduced an ana-lytic bias into our work, because we are spot-checking a smaller and smaller portion of available data on any particular topic,” she argued. “What we don’t want to do is to deluge analysts who are already overwhelmed with data. We don’t want to open the spigots and dump all that on them.

“What we do want to do is to introduce automated methodol-ogies that can help us promote, build and train insight-deliverers

rather than ‘hunter-gatherers’ of information, and build alert-ing algorithms and methods that will aggregate and automate, enabling analysts to focus most of their time on delivering analy-sis. That is a lot of what we have been doing in analytic modern-ization efforts at DIA, in close partnership with the modernization programs of the other agencies,” Johnston said.

She acknowledged, however, that while analytic modernization side is deeply entwined with IC ITE, the community is still in its infancy in thinking about big data analytics and automated pro-cesses, and needs help from the ideas of industry.

“We want to move beyond our existing stovepiped processes, but we don’t want to move our existing processes to the cloud and plunk them into this new architecture,” Johnston said. “That would be a waste. We need to challenge our existing processes and focus on a to-be state. There is great benefit to having people who are not wedded to the investments we have made over the last 50 years, and can help us identify optimal solutions and processes.” O



GEOINT Big Data Supports Special Operations

The geospatial archives of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) contain nearly 500 terabytes of data, according to Earl Miller, a geospatial expert with the command who spoke at the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s recent GEOINT 2015 Symposium.

The data archive, which comprises all the geospatial information that SOCOM has collected or generated, would be enough to fill more than 450 hard drives, or tens of thou-sands of CD-ROMs or DVDs. According to an industry esti-mate, a single terabyte is enough to store 500 movies.

Miller’s presentation offered a relatively rare look into how SOCOM uses GEOINT for all aspects of its operations, including mission planning and training.

“Our mission is to do two things: build enhanced GEOINT data for mission planning systems, and build 3-D visualization databases in support of scene visualization, on everything from mobile devices to the big simulators. We do that for training, whether basic or advanced, and for operations, so that people can see what they are going to do before they do it,” Miller said. “We want special operations to have superior knowledge of the battlespace when they get there, making them more lethal and enhancing their chances of surviving.”

It takes a lot of work to bring all the data together and make it as useful as possible for those about to undertake dangerous missions in frequently difficult terrain, he noted. “Eighty percent of our cost and time is to get the data to line up geospatially, and also enhance it, because the majority of that data is low-resolution. The main battle force of the spe-cial operations forces is the individual soldier, sailor or air-man operating on the ground. They need to know where they can crawl through the ditches and be concealed from fire,” Miller said.

Once the data are enhanced and geospatially aligned, they are stored in open industry standard GIS layers, which are then used for mission training, analysis, rehearsal and execution. The SOCOM office maintains a wide range of databases, such as for close air support or aircraft simulation, as well as sensor information and radar and underwater databases.

“We build all the databases, of which there are many. We got tired of building the same piece of earth over and over, so about eight years ago we came up with the concept of build-ing a common database that all of our SOF systems could operate on. The common database is all of the layers of GIS, plus multiple layers of imagery, so that you have the right image depending on what time of year you are operating, for example,” Miller said.

The data are stored in a storage area network, which enables users to reach in and grab the data they need, assemble the scene and display it on the viewing system. “The visual, sensor and simulation systems all see the same thing, so you have a correlated environment to do training and operations,” he noted. “It is very important that when we hook simulators together, everyone sees the same thing at the same time. That’s our common database concept, and we’ve got the world built in it.

“Counting all the data that we collect and produce, we have 495 terabytes of digital data stored,” Miller con-tinued. “We keep that data online as well as offline, and we provide access to any of that data to anyone in SOF. There is a tool that allows anyone in SOF to come into the archive, see what data is available about their area of opera-tion, and arrange to have it sent to them by the means they prefer.”


Instead of information about leopards, tigers and other car-nivorous animals, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has added human geography content—languages, ethnic groups, pop-ulation densities and cultural customs—to evasion charts (EVCs).

Evasion charts are unclassified, limited-distribution charts pro-duced by NGA for the military that provide information service-members can use to survive and find rescue if stranded during their missions in hostile or unknown areas.

Human geography (HG) is the study of people, how they orga-nize themselves and how they shape and are shaped by their envi-ronment, said Kent Christen, a human geographer at NGA.

NGA produced its first evasion chart with human geogra-phy content in November 2014 for Operation United Assistance, the Department of Defense support to West Africa during the Ebola crisis.

The introduced of human geography into evasion charts was welcomed by the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA) in Fort Belvoir, Va. The JPRA is the department’s office of primary respon-sibility for DoD-wide personnel recovery matters.

“Including HG in EVCs could be an enormous benefit to an evading servicemember and can help him or her create evasion plans of action, based on people-centric information,” said John Stotz, chief of the Evasion Aids Branch at the JPRA.

Human geography is a relatively new emphasis for NGA, and the agency is working to incorporate HG to its products and ser-vices. The new charts are simply one example of how NGA is using HG information to improve its tradecraft.

Evasion charts trace their history back to World War II. Traditional EVCs contain maps, medical information and informa-tion about local plants and animals.

The charts are much larger than typical maps—42 inches by 60 inches—and are printed on both sides of Tyvek, a waterproof, extremely tear-resistant material. This material allows the charts to serve as more than just maps. They can collect water; protect against sun, wind or precipitation; splint a broken bone; cover a wound and more.

NGA produces evasion charts at the request of U.S. combatant commands and military services based on their strategic annual requirements. NGA also produces charts for emerging conflicts and crises, such as the Ebola crisis. The charts are then provided to individual military personnel in advance of their missions.

The evasion chart team brought the idea of adding human geography information to the charts to JPRA this past fall. The team already was working on a chart for West Africa to support the Ebola crisis, so they made some modifications to include human geography elements and put together a prototype.

With a finite amount of space on an evasion chart, the team had to make hard decisions about which information to include and which existing information to remove.

“The standard we set for adding new information was that it had to be generalized, useful and accurate in the long term,” said Christen.

Some information about local animals was dropped to make room for human geography content.

“EVCs used to show images of leopards or tigers or animals of that sort, to advise people to avoid them,” said Sean Noll, branch chief of the NGA team of cartographers, designers and human geographers that produces the charts. “Well, we thought that was pretty obvious.”

Because those who might use evasion charts would already have received military survival training, basic survivability infor-mation was also removed from the charts, according to Kimberly Rennegarbe, a cartographer with the team.

JPRA reviewed the West Africa prototype evasion chart and took it to the user community, where it received overwhelmingly posi-tive feedback, said Noll.

With the support of JPRA, all new evasion charts now contain human geography information, and NGA is adding it to new edi-tions of charts as they are replaced.

NGA has added four elements of human geography to EVCs:

• Native language information: Basic local language survival phrases, such as “Hello,” “Can you give me water?” and “Where is the nearest hospital?”

• Ethnic distribution: This could help isolated personnel understand the religious, economic and cultural background of the people they encounter.

• Population density information: This could help isolated personnel know where they can likely avoid local people or seek assistance.

• Cultural dos and don’ts: For example, in areas of West Africa, one should approach a dwelling by clapping one’s hands, rather than knocking. O

By Jessica Daues, NGA Office of Corporate Communications. Reprinted from the spring 2015 edition of Pathfinder, the magazine of NGA.

by JessicA dAues

NGA Adds people-ceNtric iNformAtioN to emerGeNcy mAps for lost or strANded persoNNel.



GIF 1 3 . 5 | 25 www.GIF-kmi.com

A non-profit organization dedicated to bringing government and industry together to solve problems is using crowdsourcing and other techniques to encourage innovation and overcome obstacles in the federal con-tracting process.

Founded by two intelligence community veter-ans, the Foundation for Innovation and Discovery (FINND) has focused its initial efforts on the intel-ligence field. But Louis Tucker and Gene Keselman hope to expand their efforts government-wide, as well as into academia and other areas.

Beginning in 2013, the group has put on a number of talks and panels bringing together senior govern-ment and industry innovators and FINND members in informal set-tings. It also offers a crowdsourcing service, in which “FINNDERs” volunteer to recommend companies and solutions able to solve spec-ified government problems.

In addition, FINND stages Discovery Summits, where selected companies present proposed solutions to “hard problems” identified by a govern-ment agency. One such event was held at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s headquarters in Springfield, Va., earlier this year.

The group arose from what the found-ers saw as a lack of honest communica-tion between government and industry. “In many cases, it was the government’s fault,” said Keselman, who serves as execu-tive director. “They strive for transparency and access to everyone, but a lot of times things don’t actually hap-pen that way. We had a lot of connections with senior and innovative people in government, and we knew that they were just as eager to make connections with industry as industry was with them.

“So we started FINND to help make that connection. It was about creating a safe space for discussion around technology and the pub-lic private partnership, and also about being an honest broker. We wanted to be different in that we would occupy space where we don’t misalign the relationship between government and industry with our own self-interest. In every sense, we try to be a nonprofit, and not to be about the bottom line, but about connections, introduc-tions, conversations and innovations,” he said.

The FINND Talks and Mission Forums are meeting a real need for informal interaction and information sharing among officials and industry executives, Keselman noted. “An enormous num-ber of people in government want to talk about problems and mis-sions and engage with industry on a personal level. So we designed the talks to be intimate conversations about topics for government and industry.”

The talks have featured leaders such as Lieutenant General Raymond Palumbo, deputy under secretary of defense (intelligence) for warfighter support and director of the ISR Task Force; Cathy

Johnston, director for analysis for the Defense Intelligence Agency; and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), former rank-ing member on the House Intelligence Committee. Private-sector speakers have included representatives of Google, the University of Michigan and SpaceX.

The recent Discovery Summit began with a list of problems posed by NGA. “We went to industry all over the world to find innovative solutions that the government had never seen before,” Keselman recalled. “Twenty-four companies were selected, and at an unclassified level brought them to NGA. We had a morning session with seven-minute pitches by each company, and then each company got a breakout ses-

sion with a largely government audience. Some 400 government employees signed up for the event.

“It’s really about exposing the government to companies and peo-ple with innovations they never had had the reach to get to before. It’s about expanding the government’s reach, and behind that is the

crowdsourcing,” he added. But Keselman acknowledged that

there are challenges in bringing innova-tion to government, chief among them the federal contracting system. “I talk to a lot of government people, and it’s almost universal that the number one obstacle to innovation is the contracting process. People in government want to move for-ward, and to go as far as they can inside the rules to get things done. But they are incentivized against that through the

contracting restrictions.“Sometimes it’s perception, and what people think they can do,”

he continued. “I’ve often talked to government people who say they can’t talk to a certain industry person, because it seems like that would be giving an unfair advantage. But unless there is an active competition under way, there is no reason you can’t talk to industry as much as you would like.”

Looking ahead, Keselman sees corporations potentially benefit-ting as much as NGA from crowdsourcing innovation.

“We’re a partnering organization, and we would work with any-one that needs the help,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of stuff in the works, including a fall event with West Coast innovators. We have partnerships with academia and with consortiums that want FINND to the crowdsourcing as a platform to help them do innovation-find-ing. We’ll still be doing what we do today in two or three years, but we’ll also do a lot of other things with organizations to help this innovation-growing thing that we do.” O

www.finnd.org



InnovationbeGiNNiNG with the ic, fiNNd is workiNG to briNG GoverNmeNt ANd iNdustry toGether to solve problems.

Gene Keselman

Susan Gordon, deputy director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, addressed a FINND Discovery Summit earlier this year. [Photo courtesy of FINND]

by hArrisoN doNNelly, Gif editor

Crowdsourcing for


AustrAliAN GeoiNt AGeNcy hoNored

Australia’s GEOINT agency is among the more than 170 orga-nizations around the world to receive a Special Achievement in GIS award from Esri.

The winners, which spanned a wide range of government, envi-ronmental, health and commercial programs from several dozen nations, were honored for “using the power of geography to make our world a better place,” according to Esri President Jack Dangermond.

In addition to the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organization (AGO), the Israeli Ministry of Defense and South Korean Army were recognized in the defense field.

The AGO’s Enterprise Production Management (EPM) project is delivering enterprise GIS-focused foundation production, which is driving transformational change in the way AGO produces, manages and disseminates GEOINT. The EPM project has three core objectives: deliver enterprise data management for the collection and mainte-nance of authoritative foundation data, modernize feature and car-tographic production workflows and deliver applications to enable efficient task management and tracking and visibility of topographic mapping production management.

EPM consists of the latest Esri desktop and server technologies with solution extensions for defense mapping and is aligned with NGA content management and Esri’s ArcGIS platform architecture and COTS roadmap. EPM is scalable to meet AGO’s anticipated future needs and readily integrates with specified corporate standards and other GEOINT systems.

EPM represents a significant technology refresh for AGO and opportunity for AGO’s foundation production business to reform its business processes, Esri officials indicated. This has led to consid-erable structural reform as well as business process redevelopment, updated policies, improved data governance and upskilling of people to greatly enhance usability and accessibility of spatially referenced data within the department and across the enterprise.

New releAse feAtures lidAr compressioN

LizardTech, a provider of software solutions for managing and dis-tributing geospatial content, has launched GeoExpress 9.5.

GeoExpress enables geospatial professionals to compress and manipulate satellite and aerial imagery. In addition to compressing raster data, GeoExpress 9.5 now features the ability to natively com-press LiDAR data to MrSID and LAZ formats, saving up to 75 percent on storage space. GeoExpress 9.5 also includes batch color balanc-ing, multi-polygon cropping and exporting images to custom dimen-sions and tiles.

“The launch of GeoExpress 9.5 is particularly exciting because of the many benefits this latest version brings not only to our raster image collection customers, but also to LiDAR data collection cus-tomers,” said Jeff Young, LizardTech global business development manager. “GeoExpress 9.5 is now your one-stop shop to compress ras-ter and LiDAR imagery to MrSID and LAZ formats.”

coNteNt mANAGemeNt system desiGNed for uAs

Progressive Technology Federal Systems Inc. (PTFS) has intro-duced Droneware, a geospatial content management system (GeoCMS) for unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Droneware facilitates the storage, discovery and dissemination of virtually any type of sensor data cap-tured by a UAS or unmanned aerial vehicle. PTFS is the provider of the Knowvation Enterprise Content Management System (ECMS) popular among large users of geospatial data. A thin client/server-based solution requiring only a web connection, Droneware runs on a PC in the office or handheld device in the field, enabling the user to interrogate local or remote UAS data storage anytime from anywhere. Droneware is built on the same Knowvation ECMS technology that commercial and government organizations rely upon to manage ras-ter and vector geospatial data as well as video, audio and text-based content across multiple large data archives. The primary appeal of Droneware to UAS (and UAV) data users is its simple and intuitive search and browse capability for data discovery. Users can perform geospatial queries by typing a geographic name or word, entering lat-itude/longitude coordinates or preforming a visual search by drawing a rectangle on a map interface.

plAtform Geo-eNAbles Access to eNterprise dAtA

SAP announced that it is offering new capabilities to turbocharge spatial intelligence by simplifying, accelerating and geo-enabling access to enterprise data. In the era of the Internet of Things, prolif-eration of low-cost location-aware devices is augmenting enterprise data with the “where” component. The SAP HANA platform can help break the silos between enterprise and GIS systems, enabling compa-nies to get more value from corporate data and uncover trends and patterns in a visually intuitive manner.

The latest release of SAP HANA further enhances in-memory spatial processing capabilities to deliver faster responses for millions of data points. SAP HANA SPS10 brings new spatial features and enhancements, such as support for multidimensional geometries and on-the-fly spatial coordinate transformations, driven by customer innovation projects.

In addition to the existing read-only query layer integration to SAP HANA released by Esri last year, ArcGIS for Desktop now sup-ports feature services providing a method for users to create, read, update or delete spatial data directly in SAP HANA. This simplifies the access and use of spatial data in SAP HANA and provides power-ful, transactional spatial data creation and editing capabilities to sup-port real-time operational and analytic applications, opening a broad new range of use cases and workflows for both Esri and SAP users. O



(Editor’s Note: Following are some of the major announcements made at the Esri User Conference held in San Diego, Calif., July 20-24, 2015.)

Esri User Conference Update


Compiled by KMI Media Group staffGIF RESOURCE CENTER

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CAlendArSeptember 9-10, 2015Intelligence and National Security SummitWashington, D.C.www.intelsummit.org

September 14-16, 2015Air and Space ConferenceNational Harbor, Md.www.afa.org

September 22-24, 2015Modern Day MarineQuantico, Va.www.marinemilitaryexpos.com

October 12-14, 2015AUSA Annual MeetingWashington, D.C. http://ausameetings.org

September 2015 Vol. 13, Issue 6NEXTISSUE


Insertion Order Deadline: August 21, 2015 • Ad Material Deadline: August 28, 2015

To Advertise, Contact: Scott P. Parker, Associate PublisherPhone: 301.670.5700 x 135 Email: [email protected]

Cover and In-Depth Interview with

Lt. Gen. RobeRt P. “bob” ottoDeputy Chief of Staff for ISRU.S. Air Force

• GEOINTforMissionPlanning

• ManagingBigData• OpenSource

• SpecialMissionAircraftandISR

• RemoteSensing

MarineCorpsIntelligenceInterview with Maj. Gen. Michael Groen Director of Intelligence

Features

Special Section

Modern Day Marine

BonusDistribution:


INDUSTRY INTERVIEW Geospatial Intelligence Forum

Vonna Weir HeatonVice President and Lead Executive

Information and Intelligence SolutionsBall Aerospace and Technologies Corp.

Q: Please tell us about yourself and how you joined Ball Aerospace.

A: I joined Ball Aerospace in 2013 after serv-ing in the Department of Defense and intelli-gence community for over 30 years. While at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and as a senior executive at the National Security Agency, I supported operational, acquisition and R&D missions across several disciplines. Joining Ball Aerospace allowed me to continue contributing to national security endeavors, this time from an indus-try perspective. I work with a talented team bringing Ball’s exquisite information services capabilities to customers in those markets.

Q: What unique benefits does your company provide its customers in comparison with other companies in your field?

A: Ball Aerospace has a 60-year heritage in supporting the national security establish-ment across platforms, sensors, instruments, analysis, data management, ground architec-tures, real-time processing and mission inte-gration. This end-to-end perspective gives us the expertise to understand the science behind the need, to build the technology delivering the science, to operate the technol-ogy efficiently and effectively, to process and transform the data for analysis and to ana-lyze the data, turning it into valuable infor-mation for consequential decisions.

As a key industry leader for advanced GEOINT data analytics—a position we’ve held more than three decades—Ball has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to mine actionable intelligence.

Most of your readers know that we support policy and operations from sensor-agnostic electromagnetic spectrum data—overhead, airborne and ground sensors, including OPIR-derived event and scene-based data, commercial overhead and airborne-derived multi/hyperspectral data and ground-based spectral data. But they may not know that we also provide open-source tools and cloud-based solutions to access intelligence/infor-mation content, accelerate the integration of big data, and deliver human-in-the-loop

applications and algorithms into a fused, responsive analytic environment.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about how Ball Aerospace supports intelligence community customers?

A: Ball Aerospace has a long history work-ing with the Air Force, NGA and other clients to provide advanced systems engineering and technology applications for intelligence and information enterprises. In addition to designing and developing satellites, sen-sors, antennas, electro-optical and micro-wave instruments, cryogenic devices and video systems, we provide advanced systems engineering and technology applications for intelligence and information enterprises to several IC and DoD organizations, special-izing in building systems and software solu-tions and supporting operations for GEOINT and MASINT mission areas. These solutions provide enterprise data management, data analytics, modeling and simulation and tech-nology assessment capabilities that are used to create actionable information products in support of warfighters and decision makers.

Q: Could you tell our readers about some of the latest developments with Ball products and services?

A: A great example of one of Ball’s innova-tive activities outside of aerospace is our work with the medical community to deliver unique capabilities like the semi-auton-omous motorcar (SAM). This joint com-mercial/Air Force Research Laboratory project enabled a quadriplegic driver to have

operational control of an automobile. In May 2014, former race car driver Sam Schmidt, who is quadriplegic, topped 100 mph on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. SAM is an example of industry and government work-ing together to rapidly transition ideas into useful capabilities. Secondly, Ball is currently building a virtual ground site and analytics platform located 100 percent in the Amazon cloud, which we have already populated with public data sources like Landsat and VIIRS. Finally, we are partnering with a data analyt-ics and imaging company to fuse data from public records, on-orbit sensors and business proprietary sources to create detailed, action-able information to provide value in multiple markets, including agricultural and utility markets.

Q: How do you see the role of GEOINT changing for the defense and intelligence communities?

A: When I joined the federal service in 1978 as a cartographer, technology was changing the cartographic tradecraft. Those changes helped to create the GIS industry. Today, technological advances continue to accel-erate the pace of change for GEOINT tra-decrafts and missions. GEOINT continues to take advantage of technological advances to add greater depth and breadth of data and information and to take the GEOINT tra-decraft to the next level.

Q: What does the future hold for Ball Aerospace & Technologies?

A: This is an exciting time for Ball. We are broadening our markets, capitalizing on our history of solving hard problems and being innovative and agile. Impressive startups are coming to Ball Aerospace in recognition of our credibility for operational and scien-tific-quality data generation. We are enabling their capabilities from sensor to platform to ground processing to data exploitation. Ball Aerospace will celebrate its 60th anniver-sary in 2016 by continuing to do what we do best—quickly taking ideas from concept and prototype to new operational capability. O

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www.ballaerospace.com

As world-class experts in geospatial-

intelligence, Ball Aerospace transforms

data into dynamic, predictive, interactive

intelligence across all GEOINT missions

and communities. From persistent data

collection hardware to advanced

processing and exploitation capabilities,

wewe provide innovative, integrated

solutions for the nation and our world.

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