New Tools Available for Network-Centric Warfare 70
Reservoir Hill writes "MIT Technology Review reports that a new map-based application is the latest tool in the military's long-term plan to introduce what is sometimes called "network-centric warfare." The Tactical Ground Reporting System, or TIGR allows patrol leaders in Iraq to learn about city landmarks and past events and more than 1,500 junior officers in Iraq — about a fifth of patrol leaders — are using the map-centric application before going on patrol and adding new data to TIGR upon returning. By clicking on icons and lists, they can see the locations of key buildings, like mosques, schools, and hospitals, and retrieve information such as location data on past attacks, geotagged photos of houses and other buildings (taken with cameras equipped with Global Positioning System technology), and photos of suspected insurgents and neighborhood leaders. They can even listen to civilian interviews and watch videos of past maneuvers. "The ability ... to draw the route ... of your patrol that day and then to access the collective reports, media, analysis of the entire organization, is pretty powerful," says Major Patrick Michaelis. "It is a bit revolutionary from a military perspective when you think about it, using peer-based information to drive the next move. ... Normally we are used to our higher headquarters telling the patrol leader what he needs to think.""
and here's... (Score:5, Informative)
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peaceful applications could save more lives (Score:5, Insightful)
"Big Brother"?.. (Score:2)
What you are asking for is "inter-agency data-sharing [google.com]". It is, indeed, very powerful, but "Big Brother" concerns [google.com] — largely but not entirely imaginary — stand in the way...
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Google for "GIS" + "law enforcement" or "disaster response", to see lots of sources. For example ESRI [esri.com] produces several products for these purposes.
The most recent trends are to add real-time synchronous and asynchronous collaboration and knowledge sharing capabilities on top of the basic GIS "maps + database", to get capabilities like those required in military command and control applications.
As mentioned above, inter-agency cooperation [and inter-operabil
Very cool tech (Score:2)
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I know the transportation departments across the country use the files.
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Rogr that!
You'd think... (Score:1, Interesting)
TWW
Re:You'd think... (Score:4, Informative)
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Of course, it still happens all of the time - witness WWII's torpedoes, early M16s, etc. Equally of course, such crap equipment comes complete with attitude from chickenhawks and armchair warrior
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Oh, great! I can't wait for the day the MOAB will go on sale at the local fireworks shack. There goes the neighborhood!
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I remember a briefing from an Air Force colonel who was involved with getting GPS deployed. He remarked that is was too bad DOD did not put a nominal $1 per device licensing fee on GPS manufacturers from the beginning. The fees would have paid for the whole system.
what is your point exactly? (Score:3, Insightful)
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TWW
you live in an ivory tower (Score:2)
Re:you live in an ivory tower (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, apart from being blown up by the IRA, having my grandmother shot dead and a friend blown to pieces it's all been pillows, harps, and peeled grapes here.
I see menace in the wasp's nest, and I see menace in the fool who stirrs the wasp's nest up. Which is more evil?
Take your head out of your ass and take a look around once in a while.
TWW
the wasps are responsible (Score:2)
better analogy: guy holds someone hostage. he says if the police try to rescue the hostage, he'll shoot the hostage. the police try to rescue the hostage, and screw it up. so the guy shoots the hostage
who is responsible for the dead hostage?
the guy who shot the hostage, 100%
if you believe the police in any way are responsible for the dead hostage, then you believe that governmental authority and rights are more important than individual responsibility and r
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"One of the very first things we did in looking at the IED problem was to recognize that the army is trying to fight an insurgency with a pretty blunt instrument," [Walter Perry, a senior researcher at the Rand think tank in Arlington, VA, and a Vietnam-era army signals officer] says. "This is about 90 percent police work and 10 percent violent conflicts. Patrols--the cop on a beat--fill out a report saying, Here is what I did. You get situational awareness."
So to answer your question, they need more technology because 90% of the time, they're operating outside their core competency.
All Baghdad needed from the outset was police on the ground to prevent it from degenerating into the Sunni/Shi'a/USA clusterfuck it is today. In 2003, US troops were not prepared for that job, nor were their bosses prepared for that eventuality, even though many people had accurately predicted what was going to happen.
It's nice to see the boys at the RAND Institute saying that
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It sounds as if you're stating that all Baghdad needed back then was some police.
Which police force would you have put in place back then? Saddam's gang? The Iraqi Army? which one?
Our Arm
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Something like complaining about why your favorite NFL quarterback didn't throw the pass to the *OPEN* receiver, instead of the guy that was covered. Or your favorite striker not bending the ball around the keeper, but instead drilling into his belly...
In hindsight, much seems flawed. At the moment, either the military chose wrong options in the heat of the moment (example the first, above) or simply did not execute or choose the righ
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Our nation's military and intelligence community is in an interesting, somewhat unique time in history where it is able to benefit from technology created outside of the defense world rather than the other way around. I'm always gr
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Yes, because we'd not be able to do scientific research without killing people. That money would all just go to waste.
TWW
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I was opposed to this war from the beginning (my opinion has since become more complex), but I think this technology will help end it.
If you read the article, it alludes to the fact that one of the main reasons we (the United States) are losing against insurgents (and have lost against guerrilla warfare in general), is because the manner in which they act and share information is vastly different from the way the US Army operates.
In the US army, systems like this have already exis
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Not really. The decisive Revolutionary War battles were not only conventional, but fought with considerable help from the icky French.
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Military blunders are rarely fixed by military solutions.
TWW
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Internets (Score:4, Insightful)
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More then catching up. (Score:1)
oh glee... (Score:2)
scary thought (Score:1, Insightful)
"It is a bit revolutionary from a military perspective when you think about it, using peer-based information to drive the next move.
Peer based information eh? Fundamentally an armed mob and the military are relatively similar: both are large groups of people using force (read: weapons; read: guns) to achieve an objective requiring greater force than any individual member is capable o
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The peer based information also goes to the commander. Commands should be adjusted as needed. IIRC, the US military gives patrol commanders a certain level of leeway to best accomplish their missions - so this is just another source of information for use in that leeway.
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huh (Score:1)
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The first rule of military acronyms is that they must sound warrior-like. Where the letters "come from" is a secondary consideration.
Seen it, been there, done that... (Score:1)
I guess they played EQ2 with eq2maps (Score:2)
The sad part is it has taken this long for the military to remember that it's the guys on the ground that are actually seeing what is happening, and can provide a lot of useful information if they are just listened to. Giving them the ability to update databases wi
Re:I guess they played EQ2 with eq2maps (Score:4, Insightful)
Try to track down one of the detailed stories of how they identified where Saddam was hiding. Not a newspaper account, but a detailed story about it. They did not, as you might assume, get a tip that said "Hey, Saddam is here!" (Or rather, they have way too many such tips.) It was actually a clever approach where they graphed his network of associates, figured out where he was most likely to take shelter, applied carefully-placed pressure to narrow down the options (both in the sense of locating him, and in the sense of corralling him), and eventually fingered his location through logic and information gathering.
I think the news reporters don't report this stuff because they don't really understand it. If they did, they'd be much more panicky about the capabilities the military has been developing. Personally, while most people are screaming and worrying about half-imaginary infractions by the Bush administration, I find myself a little concerned not at how bad our military is at putting down insurgencies, but at how good at it they are getting. Not the usual story line, I know, but one better supported by the actual evidence, IMHO.
Did anybody read the article and catch... (Score:1)
Major Michaelis is mistaken (Score:5, Informative)
In an ideal military (which as a vet, I realize ours isn't--but closer than you might think) the chain of command sets an objective and then the lowers carry it out as they see fit. Micromanagement (something most line soldiers were apprehensive about with the Land Warrior system, or whatever they're calling it this week) is never a good thing in a fight. You don't want a general, most of whom are at least 50% political animals with their eye always on the "how will this look on my evaluation" factor, telling a private which window to throw a grenade in when clearing a house. The general says "take the city" the colonel says "Company A attack from the north, Company B attack from the west" and the captains tell the NCOs "go get 'em" and leave the minor details up to platoon/squad leaders.
On a similar note, more information (contrary to the commonly-held slashdot idea) isn't always better. Aside from information overload (another Land Warrior worry) there's the fact that details can get lost in an outpouring of video and maps. It's equally effective to talk to the last patrol's leader and get him to tell you "don't go down Saddam Street" or "We've had problems when we go past the former Baath Party HQ." Better in some ways, since an actual person can communicate nuances and answer questions. Also, I think there can be a tendency to put some portion of your attention on mapping the actual space to what you've seen in the dog-and-pony show, which lowers your situational awareness.
I'm not completely discounting TIGR, just saying that whether this TIGR deal is the bee's knees or not... remains to be seen
Bad form to reply to myself, but... (Score:2)
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I'll second this. A face to face with previous patrol leaders as well as those who overwatch your patrol sector is indispensible information. If you start taking fire, there isn't time to look at your PDA and figure out which way to move,
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Network Centric Warfare (Score:2, Informative)
What is the peer and the tidbit in such a mesh? (Score:1, Interesting)
Pakistan would be the superpower (Score:3, Funny)
Don't tell em (Score:1)
Interesting Application (Score:1)