Warfighters need to make decisions quickly, but managing and accessing the growing number of images and videos available has become increasingly difficult due to the proliferation of unmanned surveillance technologies. Making sense of the overwhelming amount of sensor data is another stumbling block where battlefield decisions must be made instantly.
But intelligence specialists at U.S. Joint Forces Command Intelligence Directorate (J2) will be fielding a system in April that will give warfighters the ability to access, archive and analyze the enormous number of images and video collected on the battlefield.
Valiant Angel will eliminate the need for videos and images to be physically transported between units or commands, which is both dangerous and time consuming, due to roadside bombs and poor road conditions. What's more, VA gives operators at every level the ability to fuse analysis with motion imagery records, exposing a larger community of warfighters to insights and analytic discoveries.
U.S. Joint Forces Command conducted a demonstration of Valiant Angel on March 17. Air Force Col. George J. Krakie, USJFCOM deputy director of Intelligence (J2), Norfolk Naval Support Activity, Va., explained that Valiant Angel uses commercial technologies that are standard in the motion picture industry and television, integrates them into a solution, and then packages them to fit into the military environment.
"We set out to enhance irregular warfare and our counterinsurgency operations by improving warfighter access to full motion video and wide area data over the existing networks that they have in theater now and to reach the guy at the tactical edge that may only have a laptop and a 56k modem," Krakie said.
Justin Thurber, operations officer for the Valiant Angel program, explained that the number of sensors that can be seen collecting data over a U.S. or joint base, or in Afghanistan, represents only a portion of the sensors that actually exist.
"We are talking about terabytes of data [produced] every hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Gone are the days when we can allow [valuable] data like this to fall through the cracks to the cutting floor, never to be seen or used," Thurber said.
Instead, intelligence specialists will be able to analyze data to identify trends or locate persons of interest. Valiant Angel can also send automatic alerts when new images that match a warfighter’s interests enter the system. Valiant Angel will use existing sensors and networks, and it is standardscompliant, so operators can use their own software or the VA software that provides additional capabilities.
The Valiant Angel software package improves operators' ability to search a secure, networked database. Operators will be able to conduct searches based not just on where and when the video was gathered, but also using key words, Krakie explained.
For example, users will be able to type in "explosion" and see all video in the system with that word in it. Valiant Angel also will provide alerts when specific intelligence a user designates becomes available.
"It enables users who don't have time to watch all the video to receive alerts that something they are interested in is coming across or available in the video archive," Krakie said. "I may not be able to sit there and watch the video today, but I want to know if any [roadside bombs] explode and we have video of that."
In addition to the thick client software provided by Valiant Angel, the VA team is developing a Web interface so that operators that do not have Valiant Angel software can use the Web interface to access some of its capabilities.
A Valiant Angel network operations center and VA nodes will be collocated near ground sites for existing sensors that will ingest sensor data. The NOCs will not store all the video, but will act as a "catalog" for available content. The configuration of a NOC will be different for each site based on the infrastructure of the bases slated to receive the equipment, Thurber said.
Andrew (“AJ”) Forysiak, deputy program manager and technical manager for Valiant Angel, emphasized that a single version of Valiant Angel can take feed from numerous types of sensors.
“Every day a new sensor shows up in theater, and we are postured to take advantage of that sensor going into theater. We can do it by using traditional means. There are ground control systems, and we can put one of our nodes near the ground control station, take that feed, and make it available to the systems that are out there,” Forysiak said.
The data that Valiant Angel will make available to warfighters may have only been available to a small number of warfighters in the past. Forysiak explained, “Our capability takes that information and makes it available to everybody on the network.”
Valiant Angel is providing not only equipment and software but also instructions, training and support representatives, according to Krakie.
“The deliverables from this project are integrated hardware components, software for the users, training, CONOPS (concept of operations) and TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures) for the users so they know what they are getting and how to use it.
The final deliverable is field support representatives so that we don’t just drop this equipment on an Army unit or Marine unit in the field and say: ‘Good luck — here is your documentation — start working it,'” Krakie said.
Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC), the third-party evaluator for this system, had evaluators on-site, to assure that they are sending embedded and tested capability to the warfighters in theater. JITC evaluators conducted lab testing with users from the Army, Air Force and National Geospatial-Intelligence
Agency, in an environment replicating the architectural environment in Afghanistan.
Much of the Valiant Angel equipment was already in packing crates in preparation for shipping to Afghanistan, with fielding expected in April. Once the equipment is deployed, it will undergo a 60-day assessment. The remainder of the equipment will be shipped to Afghanistan and other locations in July or August with full operational capability expected in late summer.
Krakie explained that several U.S. military commands and agencies, as well as industry partners, were involved in the planning and development of Valiant Angel.
"Although Joint Forces Command is the lead and we are executing the Valiant Angel project on behalf of the ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) Task Force," Krakie said, "it really has been a partnership between Joint Forces Command, USCENTCOM (U.S. Central Command), our partners at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and other combat support agencies, as well as partners in industry, and representatives from all the services including the Army and the Air Force who have been involved with the Valiant Angel program since its inception.”
Once fully deployed Valiant Angel will dramatically improve intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for far-forward deployed troops.
Valiant Angel can:
• Collect, store and rebroadcast incoming video streams from a variety of sensors in a secure, networked database.
• Fuse intelligence data from multiple sources into incoming video streams. For example, the system allows users to discuss a video clip over instant messenger and then will embed their chat history into the video stream.
• Categorize and manage videos by keywords, geographic region or other tags and set up alerts to inform users of new clips with their specific descriptions when they are posted to the network. For example, users can type in “explosion” and the system will show the user all the video with the keyword “explosion” in it.
Valiant Angel operational value:
• Provides access to previously unavailable motion imagery sources. It correlates and collates to assist finding relevant records.
• Packages information for access by bandwidth-constrained users, saving time and giving a more complete intelligence picture.
• Connects analysts input including chat and telestration (allows its operator to draw a freehand sketch over a motion picture image which amplifies data) to motion imagery and sends updates to tactical users as needed, limiting needed radio communication and conversation delays.
• Provides theater and reach-back intelligence support that takes into account all relevant collections.
• Gives all users the ability to access WAAS and tactical UAS collections and fuse analysis to motion imagery records, exposing the larger community to insights and analytic discoveries.
Nancy Reasor is the CHIPS assistant editor.