Transforming Military Intelligence Data Processes

As intelligence technology improves, the military is able to gather an enormous amount of data every day from sensors arrayed in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) equipment through land, sea, air, and space platforms. The data is stored in individual repositories, each with its own set of procedures and proprietary technologies. However, the resulting silos are challenging analysts’ ability to compare and communicate new, insightful intelligence in real time.

Data science provides the basis to automate time-consuming analytics associated with processing, exploitation, and dissemination (PED) activities and streamline data collection from signals intelligence, full-motion video, photos, unstructured text, and social media. Automated solutions reduce the amount of time analysts spend cleaning, tagging, and structuring data.

Even with the advantages of data science and advanced analytics, it’s important to think holistically about how to best modernize PED capabilities for improved outcomes. At their core, efforts should act on and drive forward the premise that machines do analytics and people do analysis. This perspective is best understood through three transformational concepts:

• Situational Understanding – Beyond situational awareness, which is uni-dimensional, situational understanding blends data analytics, analysis, judgment, historical perspective, archived knowledge, and other sources of current data and relationship assessment to determine threats and opportunities during a mission.
• Technology Management – Moving to situational understanding using real-time networked ISR input and analysis will require a fresh perspective and fundamental reworking of the criteria for technology procurement decisions and implementation plans.
• Analyst Value Proposition –  By championing the transformation in the human/machine interface, PED capabilities can maximize the value of analysts by minimizing the amount of time they spend on mundane and low value-add activities, like staring at full-motion video waiting for some pattern to emerge.

Download Remaking Intelligence Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination to find out how these concepts are poised to help the intelligence community thrive.