Assessing the Value of Intelligence Collected by U.S. Air Force Airborne Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Platforms

Abstract

Changes in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and processing, exploitation, and dissemination capabilities over the past two decades have led to ever-increasing demand from warfighters. Commanders, planners, and operators across the U.S. Air Force (USAF) ISR enterprise face difficult decisions about how to best meet ISR needs at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels. Yet USAF currently lacks a consistent, quantitative, empirically grounded method of assessing the value that the services airborne ISR provides which is essential to good resourcing decisions. Headquarters, Air Force, Director of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance commissioned RAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF) to examine the value of MQ-1 Predator andMQ-9 Reaper platforms to operations in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. After initial investigation, the research focus was adjusted to address the need for an assessment methodology to answer such questions across the USAF ISR community.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2021
Accession Number
AD1136184

Entities

People

  • Abbie Tingstad
  • Amado Cordova
  • Balys Gintautas
  • Dahlia A. Goldfeld
  • Elizabeth M. Waina
  • Krista S. Langeland
  • Lance Menthe
  • Robert A. Guffey
  • Zachary Haldeman

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agent-Based Simulations
  • Air Force
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computer Simulations
  • Computers
  • Data Analysis
  • Data Science
  • Employment
  • Information Science
  • Intelligence Community (United States)
  • Internet
  • Mathematical Models
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Psychology
  • Reconnaissance
  • Surveillance
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States Central Command
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Aerospace logistics and air mobility.
  • Geospatial Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence Analytics
  • Theoretical Analysis.