A Commonsense Approach to Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Operations

Abstract

In the summer of 2015, Department of Defense officials announced that combat air patrols (CAP) conducted by remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) would increase steadily, from 65 per day in October to 90 per day by the end of 2019. Undoubtedly, this four-year-long expansion of the departments intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance(ISR) capabilities reflects the ever-increasing demand for tactical reconnaissance using MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reapers to monitor current and anticipated crises abroad. According to February 2016 figures, the US Air Force and its distributed common ground system (DCGS) fly 61 CAPs per day.2 Looking forward four years time, without significant increase in either US or allied involvement, one can assume that the Islamic States territory and influence will continue to expand and that new conflict zones-perhaps in the South China Sea or the Baltic States-will emerge. If so, then the Air Force should expect that the demand for ISR and full-motion-video-based products from its intelligence operators will probably exceed the means to provide them.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2016
Accession Number
AD1024276

Entities

People

  • William Giannetti

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • C4I
  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Application Software
  • Assembly Lines
  • Automation
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Control Systems
  • Cross Domain
  • Data Storage Systems
  • Department Of Defense
  • Military Aircraft
  • Reconnaissance
  • Surveillance
  • Target Recognition
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Polar and Arctic Studies
  • Strategic Security Studies
  • Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Autonomous Capabilities and Mission Reconnaissance.