GEOINT 2013* Issue The Magazine of the National Intelligence Community
Geospatial Innovator Douglas P. McGovern Director NGA InnoVision
Gaming Technology O National Security Hadoop BuckEye Anniversary
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April 2014
Volume 12, Issue 3
Current, shareable GEOINT into the hands of warfighters Warfighters and first responders without the advantage of robust network communications are often the last to get access to current, accurate, shareable, high-resolution satellite imagery and analysis products. These products are essential in the life-threatening situations they face. DigitalGlobe’s portfolio of offerings, including current high-resolution global imagery, precision 3D imagery products, and analytic products, is consumable on government and commercial mobile devices and applications.
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Improved decision making through better situational awareness in the battlefield
GEOSPATIAL INTELLIGENCE FORUM Features
April 2014 Volume 12, Issue 3
Cover / Q&A
10
BuckEye’s 10 Years of Service
This year marks a decade of service by the Army Geospatial Center’s BuckEye program, which has provided unclassified, shareable, high resolution three-dimensional terrain data to U.S., coalition and host nation forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan. By Michael A. Harper
17 Douglas P. McGovern Director NGA InnoVision
4
22
While the Hadoop open source distributed file system is becoming an increasingly important tool for crunching big data for intelligence analysis, it is not inherently well equipped to handle geospatial data. As a result, companies in the field are moving on several fronts to develop and market environments, appliances and tools specifically designed to handle problems of geospatial intelligence within Hadoop. By Peter Buxbaum
New gaming technologies are bringing enhanced capabilities to location-based training and intelligence analysis. Combining geographical information systems with today’s gaming technology allows users to perceive and understand complex geospecific environments from within a simulated virtual environment. By Karen E. Thuermer
More Meaning from Every Pixel
Departments
Game On for GEOINT
Industry Interview Mark A. Testoni
2 Editor’s Perspective 3 Program Notes/People 14 Industry Raster 27 Resource Center
President SAP National Security Services
28
GXP XPlorer
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locate, retrieve, and share GeosPatial data — Wherever it is Visit us at the 2014 GEOINT Symposium in booth 6005 for a live demonstration. www.baesystems.com/gxp
“We are undertaking to lead the community toward a robust persistent model of the world that enables an anticipatory analysis within a customizable immersive intelligence experience at the speed of human cognition. It is an exciting time to be in R&D.” — Douglas P. McGovern
EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE
Geospatial Intelligence Forum Volume 12, Issue 3 • April 2014
The Magazine of the National Intelligence Community Editorial Managing Editor Harrison Donnelly harrisond@kmimediagroup.com Online Editorial Manager Laura McNulty lauram@kmimediagroup.com Copy Editor Sean Carmichael seanc@kmimediagroup.com Correspondents Peter A. Buxbaum • Cheryl Gerber William Murray • Karen E. Thuermer
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As the Air Force and other agencies look for ways to hold down future costs of national security space programs, they could find a good model in the commercial remote sensing industry. That’s a conclusion to be drawn from a statement submitted by Kyle Schmackpfeffer, director of mapping and resource management solutions for Exelis Geospatial Systems, to a recently released Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) report on achieving economies in space. The report, “Easing the Burden: Reducing the Cost of National Security Space Capabilities,” outlines a number of industry-recommended strateHarrison Donnelly gies, including increasing acquisition stability, improved contracting and Editor communication, and leveraging commercial opportunities. What really caught my eye, however, was Schmackpfeffer’s submission, which reviewed his company’s long history of providing commercial remote sensing solutions, including building the payloads for the majority of such satellites. He offered five specific lessons for improving procurement and management, which I would explain as: • S top pursuing “exquisite” performance and the elimination of risk from systems, but rather set sights on meeting cost and schedule goals while providing high performance and a manageable amount of risk. • Provide incentives to agencies and industry for staying on time and budget. • Have less government oversight but more collaboration in programs. I’m going to guess that the author speaks from painful experience when he urges, “Place a reasonable limit on the number of attendees at design reviews,” and observes that the process includes too many people who can push the “Stop” button and not enough who can press “Go.” • Decide early on requirements and stop calling for mid-course changes, which inevitably lead to delays. Also, you can’t count on technical breakthroughs to emerge in the middle of the process, although some advances can probably be assumed over time. • Use more firm-fixed-price contracts, while offering rewards for on-time delivery.
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PROGRAM NOTES
Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
One Nation, One Map Source The National Atlas of the United States and the National Map will transition this year into a combined single source for geospatial and cartographic information. This transformation is projected to streamline access to maps, data and information from the USGS National Geospatial Program (NGP). The USGS will continue its long history of providing topographic maps, geospatial data and other geographic information by offering a range of scales and layers of geospatial information on the National Map Viewer and through U.S. Topo maps. As a result of the conversion to an integrated single source for geospatial and cartographic information, nationalatlas.gov will be removed from service on September 30, 2014. “We recognize how important it is for citizens to have access to the cartographic and geographic information of our nation. We are committed to providing that access through nationalmap.gov,” said Mark DeMulder, NGP director.
$6 Billion Contract Streamlines Intel Acquisition The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has released a solicitation for a $6 billion contracting vehicle to support IT requirements across the defense intelligence enterprise and the greater intelligence community. The Enhanced Solutions for the Information Technology Enterprise (E-SITE) contract is the second in a series of DIA IT enterprise indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity vehicles intended to bring acquisition excellence to DIA. It follows DIA’s Solutions for the Information Technology Enterprise contract. E-SITE is designed to enable streamlined execution, simplify purchase requests, standardize acquisition documentation, improve enterprise program management for customers, provide better reporting capability, improve contracting performance and data integrity, and make overall IT processes more efficient. Under the E-SITE contract, DIA intends to make multiple awards to both large and small businesses. The contract will have a combined ceiling of $6 billion over five years. www.GIF-kmi.com
New Digital Elevation Model Launched At the GEOINT 2013* Symposium in Tampa, Fla., April 14-17, Airbus Defense and Space will be celebrating the launch of WorldDEM, which will provide digital elevation model (DEM) data of unrivaled accuracy and enable a range of new capabilities and applications for defense, intelligence and other fields. WorldDEM is based on data acquired by the German high-resolution radar satellites TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X. The two satellites started synchronous data acquisition in 2010, and completed two coverages of all landmasses last year. To ensure accuracy, the units are currently re-covering areas with especially complex terrain, with the goal of completing acquisition by mid-year. By guaranteeing a standardized DEM across international boundaries, the new service will enable defense and intelligence users to achieve unprecedented precision in planning and operations. The 12-meter grid spacing available compares with the 90-meter grid spacing provided by the current Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Company executives noted that the level of detail provided by WorldDem will enable users in some cases to identify a specific tree, or tell the difference between a gravel and an asphalt road. Airbus Defense and Space holds the marketing rights for data from the satellites, which were implemented under a public-public partnership with the German Aerospace Center. (Editor’s Note: Further information on WorldDEM is available on the disc attached to this page.)
PEOPLE Rear Admiral Brett C. Heimbigner will be assigned as director, Intelligence Division, NATO International Military Staff, Brussels, Belgium. He is currently serving as deputy director, National Clandestine Service for Community HUMINT, Washington, D.C. Rear Admiral (lower half) Robert V. Hoppa has been assigned as deputy chief of staff for intelligence, Headquarters International Security Assistance ForceJoint Command/deputy director, operations and support, J-2, U.S. Forces Afghanistan. Hoppa is
Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
currently serving as deputy director, operations, J-3, U.S. Cyber Command. Lieutenant General John E. Hyten has been nominated for appointment to the rank of general and for assignment as commander, Air Force Space Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., where he is currently serving as vice commander. Paul Ramsey has been named vice president of product management at Boundless, where he will be responsible for leading the direction and development of OpenGeo Suite and related products.
Rex Ballard
Rex Ballard has joined BAE Systems as general manager for the Geospatial eXploitation Products group (GXP). Ballard brings more than 30 years of experience in managing and growing technologybased businesses.
GIF 12.3 | 3
More Meaning from Every Pixel Tools enhance the power of the
Hadoop data system to tackle the problems of geospatial and imagery analysis.
By Peter Buxbaum, GIF Correspondent caring whether the data is While the Hadoop open structured or unstructured source distributed file system or in what format it appears, is becoming an increasingly Hadoop provides a place to important tool for crunching store and process all kinds of big data for intelligence analinformation. ysis, it is not inherently well The analysis of the data equipped to handle geospatial in the Hadoop file system is data. As a result, companies done through a software proin the field are moving on cess called MapReduce. The several fronts to develop and Clarke Patterson MapReduce engine breaks up market environments, applijobs into many small tasks, ances and tools specifically run in parallel and launched designed to handle problems on all nodes that have a part of geospatial intelligence of the file. MapReduce diswithin Hadoop. tributes the logic to each of Hadoop manages the the nodes, then performs the distribution and storage of computations on each chunk large files of data across many and aggregates them. commodity servers. Because “One-third of all the data this architecture facilitates that government organizathe inexpensive parallel protions collect is unstructured, cessing of chunks of data, Mansour Raad comprised largely of spatial, which are reassembled into image and video data,” said a complete answer to a speClarke Patterson, senior director for product cific problem, Hadoop in recent years has marketing at Cloudera. “But processing this emerged as the go-to technology for dealing unstructured data and making it available with big data problems. for analysis is complex. Hadoop makes proThere are a number of reasons for cessing of massive volumes of multi-strucHadoop’s popularity, beginning with the fact tured data fast, flexible and affordable.” that it is freely available to interested users “Perhaps the greatest untapped IT through the Apache Software Foundation, resource available today is the ability to spaan open source project. Its special appeal tially analyze and visualize big data,” said for intelligence analysts and consumers lies Mansour Raad, senior software architect at in the fact that much of the data being Esri. “Looking at data without location is collected today is raw and unstructured, looking at just part of a story. Including locacoming in the form of documents, voice tion and geography in the analysis reveals recordings, video streams and images. Not 4 | GIF 12.3
patterns and associations that otherwise are missed.” Hadoop by its very nature is all about storage and processing of big data. “This gives us a mechanism to merge traditional image archiving with imaging processing,” said Karen Ebling, director of analytics at Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services. “Geospatial intelligence architectures of the past separated the archive and processing functions. Hadoop offers one way to merge these two functions. In any big data environment, you are best served to move the processing to the data, to go where the data resides. Hadoop provides this at scale.” “Hadoop is increasingly being used to provide a centralized repository for multisource intelligence data,” said Audie Hittle, chief technology officer federal at EMC Isilon. “Hadoop enables analysts to perform complex and ad hoc queries on multiple types of data within multiple structures without having to pre-structure or transform the data.” Applying Hadoop to geospatial intelligence problems allows analysts to extract more meaning from each pixel of imagery. “Every pixel is like a big data store,” said Ebling.
Optimizing Performance Some companies package and sell support for Hadoop, working to optimize the performance of the generic Apache version of Hadoop and perform support and www.GIF-kmi.com
Use of DoD imagery does not constitute or imply DoD endorsement.
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manage large volumes of geospatial data maintenance for an annual fee. They also in the form of satellite imagery. Skybox is sell licensed software utilities to manage and developing a low-cost imaging satellite sysenhance the Hadoop freeware. tem and web-accessible big data processing Cloudera’s Hadoop solution, called platform that can capture video or images Cloudera Enterprise, combines Apache of any location on Earth within a couple Hadoop with a number of other open source of days. The low-cost nature of the satellite projects to create a scalable system that opens the possibility of deploying dozens of unites storage with processing and analytic satellites, which when integrated together frameworks and includes system managehave the potential to image any spot on ment and data management tools. At its core Earth within an hour. is CDH, which provides Hadoop’s scalable Skybox is building a system to ingest and storage and distributed computing together process the raw data, allowing data scientists with a user interface and enterprise capaand end-users to ask arbitrary questions of bilities such as security. CDH also provides the data, and then publish the answers in an integration with a range of hardware and accessible way and at a scale that grows with software solutions for hundreds of compathe number of satellites in orbit. nies that have certified their technologies “Skybox satellites will capture a wealth with Cloudera. of historical information through imagery Cloudera Manager helps users manage of the planet,” said Patterson. “The benHadoop clusters with real-time views of efit of Hadoop is that they will be able to nodes and services and a central console to store a great deal of historiconfigure changes across a cal imagery. Because Hadoop cluster. It also offers reportis so cost effective from a ing and diagnostic tools to storage and processing standhelp optimize performance point, Skybox will be able to and utilization. keep a lot more data than “Cloudera Manager allows they would if they were using users to deploy their instance relational databases. This is a of Hadoop very quickly and great example of how Hadoop add nodes quickly to scale out does away with barriers in and to run at production with terms of data storage volume confidence and high availKaren Ebling constraints. Skybox will need ability,” said Patterson. “That to store a great deal of hisdoesn’t necessarily come with torical data if it is to have the Apache.” ability to analyze geospatial Data security is often trends.” overlooked in Hadoop ecosystems, said Patterson, adding that Cloudera offers a remSpatial Analysis edy. “Our security tool allows Toolkit us to secure not only at the end points in terms of who Esri last year introduced can access the Hadoop clusGIS Tools for Hadoop for exeter, but also at the granucuting spatial analysis in the lar level of data protection at Hadoop environment. The Audie Hittle the file system level. Users toolkit is integrated with can define policies that allow Esri’s leading geographical them to serve up information information system, ArcGIS. more effectively.” “The toolkit provides a Cloudera takes a four-tier way of importing big data into approach to security, comthe ArcGIS environment,” prising access to the Hadoop said Raad. “Results from spacluster, data encryption, tial querying and analytics access to data, and goverin Hadoop can be moved to nance and reporting. ArcGIS for further processing One Cloudera cusand visualization. Those geotomer, Skybox Imaging, is processed datasets can then Bobby Caudill using Cloudera Enterprise to be saved to ArcGIS or exported 6 | GIF 12.3
back into the Hadoop system, thus creating a looping workflow between the ArcGIS platform and the big data environment.” GIS Tools for Hadoop, itself an open source product, extends the Hadoop platform with a series of libraries and utilities that connect Esri ArcGIS to the Hadoop environment. It allows ArcGIS users to export map data in HDFS format—Hadoop’s native file system—and intersect it with billions of records stored in Hadoop. Esri Hadoop utilities include a generic library of geometry objects, spatial operations and spatial indexing, which can be used to spatially enable Hadoop and enable developers to build MapReduce applications that are spatially enabled. A second library enables the Esri Geometry API in Hive, a component of Hadoop that allows users to make SQL-like queries in the Hive Query Language and get answers directly from Hadoop. Geoprocessing Tools for Hadoop allows users to connect to Hadoop from ArcGIS, enabling them to import their analysis results in ArcGIS for visualization. As Hadoop continues to gain ground, companies are developing capabilities that enhance and augment what Hadoop offers. EMC’s Greenplum appliance enables the rapid ingestion and processing of structured and unstructured data in Hadoop. “The big breakthrough is the ability to combine structured and unstructured data in an efficient way,” said Hittle. “Greenplum also enables the development of applications that overlay geospatial data with imagery, video and signals intelligence. This data overlay capability enhances decision support. By correlating geospatially oriented data with other data such as imagery and signals intelligence from many different sources, analysts and decision makers are better able to figure out where something is occurring and exactly what is going on.” EMC Isilon provides a dynamic, threetiered storage system for large data sets, including geospatial data. Ingested data is assigned to a storage tier depending on the need for the rapid availability of that data. Data is reassigned based on evolving data needs. Teradata, meanwhile, helps organizations store and process big data with a concept it calls a unified data architecture, which includes Hadoop. “Our premise is that no one technology is the right answer for all data problems,” said Bobby Caudill, director of global government industry marketing at www.GIF-kmi.com
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the story. A platform like Hadoop allows us Teradata. “We bring together best-of-breed to bring in multi-INT information, social enterprise data warehouses, discovery platmedia, and all sorts of open source data to forms and analytics. Hadoop plays a role complete the picture. We can then look at by providing low-cost storage for unstrucglobal scale data to find correlations that tured data.” answer key intelligence questions.” Teradata’s platform allows analysts to pull data form multiple sources and in multiple formats, including unstructured data, Beyond the Desktop and apply analytics to them in a single environment. “The analyst doesn’t have to Digital Globe for the past several years care where the information is stored,” said has been developing a customizable geoCaudill. “He just has to know knows how spatial toolkit and application development to run the analytics. The platform decides framework called MrGeo (MapReduce Geo). where to go and get the information.” “MrGeo is designed to perform highly Law enforcement authorities in Brazil, scalable analytics across large geographifor example, are using the Teradata platform cal regions that can use multi-terabyte data to analyze traffic patterns on the country’s sets that exceed desktop GIS platform caparoads in effort to identify potential smugbilities,” said Ken Campbell, vice president, glers and human traffickers. U.S. government insight serRaytheon has been doing vices for DigitalGlobe. “It’s processing of both still images designed to leverage both and video on Hadoop. “We are CPU and GPU based processlooking broadly at emerging ing for performing tile-based capabilities to access and prooperations that can be discess image data, several of tributed across a Hadoop/ which are completely Hadoop MapReduce framework.” based,” said Ebling. “We are MrGeo incorporates an integrating our GEOINT anaeasy user interface that allows lytics with a Hadoop-based the analyst access to pre-prosystem we have in-house cessed and provisioned rasGuy Swope now, one that we believe will ter and vector data through revolutionize how imagery applications and widgets and video is collected, stored designed to process, model and accessed for processing.” and analyze a variety of geoRaytheon’s work in spatial operations such as Hadoop has facilitated the route mobility studies, radioprocess of feature extracfrequency propagation analtion from images and video, ysis, and site selection. “All according to Guy Swope, of these operations can be an engineering direcexecuted in a near simultator at Raytheon’s Analytics neous workflow on a counCapability Center. “Knowing try or continental scale,” said Ken Campbell where each pixel is in the Campbell. image gives us the ability to “Let’s say an organizaidentify objects and do feature extraction,” tion needed to identify the optimal route he said. “We are able to apply analytics to that an off-road vehicle could travel across a each frame of a video. We can apply this mountain region in Afghanistan while mininformation to a map very accurately and imizing both the amount of time traveled that enables us to discover more information and the exposure to high elevation points,” on particular features and objects.” Campbell explained. “Leveraging desktop Pattern-of-life analyses scale well into GIS software, one would need to break the a Hadoop architecture, said Ebling. “When region into manageable subsets, then run you can look at an image backdrop and be the appropriate algorithms independently able to ascertain human activity, like hangand stitch the mosaic back together. This outs, patterns of daily movement, and object would take hours if not days to execute, or correlations, then the human elements start could even be impossible.” to emerge from the picture,” she explained. This same scenario in MrGeo becomes “An image tells the story, but only part of greatly simplified, according to Campbell. 8 | GIF 12.3
“First, a cost surface image is generated using a pre-built model that represents the particular environment and mobility scenario,” he explained. “Then utilizing this cost surface output, a least cost path is executed to identify the shortest available route between the start and endpoint. Finally, an algorithm is applied to highlight those areas that are highly exposed to surrounding elevation vantage points or villages that might be hostile to the mission. “If information is needed along the route on radio frequency transmission loss, users can simply drop points along the map to instantly produce areas of high and low path loss at a particular frequency transmission,” said Campbell, who noted that MrGeo is currently undergoing development and integration with three Department of Defense customers. DigitalGlobe is also working on an activity-based intelligence solution, known as Movement Intelligence Distributed Analytic Services (MIDAS). MIDAS enables auto-association and correlation of track data derived from full-motion video, ground movement targeting indication, and wide-area motion imagery against high resolution imagery and 3-D models. “The purpose is to discover networks associated with events and locations in an area of interest,” said Campbell. “MIDAS is principally designed to address the data intensive world of unmanned aerial system collections, and give those challenged with the responsibility of processing, exploiting and disseminating information from aerial platforms the ability to do so in an accelerated, super-efficient fashion.” Hadoop hit the market very quickly and rapidly became accepted as a key tool for handling big data issues. Now it is evolving from a cool tool to a mission critical component of the IT environment. “Hadoop’s importance has grown more quickly than everybody first thought,” said Patterson. “That means that there is now a greater need to apply proper management, governance and security to Hadoop. It is important not to treat Hadoop any different than the rest of the data management stack. Hadoop is becoming mission critical to datacentric strategies.” O For more information, contact GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly at harrisond@kmimediagroup. com or search our online archives for related stories at www.gif-kmi.com.
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MetaVR’s new remote-controlled aircraft collects 1-inch per-pixel resolution imagery for 3D terrain compilation and real-time visualization in MetaVR Virtual Reality Scene Generator.
Real-time screen capture from MetaVR’s visualization system is of the 3D virtual terrain of a geospecific area with 1-inch per pixel imagery collected by the MetaVRC™ aircraft. The operational readiness testing of the MetaVRC was performed as described by the FAA and AMA applicable airspace operation rules and regulations. (AMA National Safety Code and FAA AC 91-57.) Data was collected as part of this testing. This screen capture is unedited except as required for printing. The real-time rendering of the 3D virtual world is generated by MetaVR Virtual Reality Scene Generator™ (VRSG™). 3D model is from MetaVR’s 3D content libraries. © 2014 MetaVR, Inc. All rights reserved. MetaVR, Virtual Reality Scene Generator, VRSG, MetaVRC, the phrase “Geospecific simulation with game quality graphics,” and the MetaVR logo are trademarks of MetaVR, Inc.
www.metavr.com
Army program’s shareable terrain data became a mainstay of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. By Michael A. Harper
This year marks a decade of service by the Army Geospatial Center’s BuckEye program, which has provided unclassified, shareable, high resolution three-dimensional (HR3D) terrain data to U.S., coalition, and host nation forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The BuckEye “standard” 10 cm color imagery and 1 m post spacing, LiDARderived terrain data became nearly ubiquitous in all manner of systems in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, whether on military, diplomatic or development missions. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment of the BuckEye program over the past decade, however, has been the revival of combat mapping, and the expectation that warfighters should have tactical and urban scale HR3D terrain data at their disposal wherever they go, rather than merely data at strategic and operational scales. BuckEye did not exist operationally before deploying to Iraq in 2004. Its roots were in the Rapid Terrain Visualization (1997) and Urban Recon (2003) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations (ACTD) sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. These R&D efforts 10 | GIF 12.3
featured experiments and demonstrations of technologies for the collection, processing and exploitation of HR3D terrain data from both airborne and terrestrial platforms. Both of these efforts were focused on how to rapidly characterize urban and complex terrain so that it could be done within the mission planning cycle that maneuver commanders were likely to have in future operational environments. Many technologies were test-driven as part of these ACTDs, but it was the combination of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and electro-optical (EO) sensors that proved most fruitful in generating HR3D terrain data at the resolutions and accuracies that the stakeholders desired. As ACTDs are focused on adapting technologies to DoD mission uses, these efforts benefited greatly from the maturation of COTS LiDAR and EO sensor capabilities— which in turn enabled the BuckEye program to fly its high fidelity data in an unclassified and shareable manner. But R&D was not enough. While great lessons were learned, they still had to be adapted for and integrated into the tactics, techniques and procedures of the future ground force.
Iraq and Afghanistan First applied to IED change detection missions in Iraq, using EO sensor alone on UH-60 rotary wing aircraft, the BuckEye10 cm color imagery quickly became in high demand by maneuver commanders. In order to address the large geographies for which maneuver commanders demanded HR3D terrain data collection, the BuckEye program moved to manned fixed wing aircraft, and quickly paired the EO with LiDAR technologies to generate HR3D terrain data. The commercial technologies were quickly adapted to meet the 8,500foot operational flight floor that was set, in order to continue providing the 10 cm resolution imagery and adding in 1 m post spacing, LiDAR-derived terrain data. In Iraq, one manned fixed wing BuckEye platform was dedicated to working its way through an ever growing collection deck backlog. After six years, the BuckEye program managed to collect every population center, line of communication and transportation corridor, amounting to roughly 18 percent of Iraq’s land area, much of it imaged several times during the course of the U.S. and coalition troops’ time in Iraq. www.GIF-kmi.com
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GIF 12.2 | 11
By 2007, warfighters with experience with HR3D terrain data from the BuckEye program in Iraq demanded that they have the same capability in support of their deployment to Afghanistan. Not only was Afghanistan appreciably larger in size, however, but also the proportion of the country that was operationally relevant was much higher than the 18 percent proven out in Iraq. And while there was much less urban terrain, the complexity of the rugged Hindu Kush posed its own unique operational challenges. A single BuckEye was deployed to Regional Command-East, based out of Kandahar Air Base. But the HR3D collection deck, driven by the needs of commanders left to maneuver the Hindu Kush, quickly outstripped what a single BuckEye could meet within their short operational cycles. Upon his arrival, General Stanley McChrystal, commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), sought to rectify this shortfall by requesting additional BuckEye platforms by name. Ultimately, each regional command enjoyed its own commander-taskable platform to supply the HR3D data required to fuel their IPB processes. In addition, a BuckEye UAS capability was fielded to support some specific low-profile requirements. By the beginning of 2014, BuckEye had flown some 60 percent of Afghanistan—more than 450,000 square kilometers. The BuckEye program also collected another 150,000 square kilometers by funding and serving as the operational transition partner for DARPA’s High Altitude LiDAR Operational Experiment capability. BuckEye, in many ways, became the sine qua non of GEOINT in Afghanistan and Iraq because it was unclassified and shareable. To be sure, its 10 cm color imagery and 1 m post spacing, LiDAR-derived terrain data was unparalleled among sensor systems. But in a coalition war fighting environment that sought to achieve integrated operations with uncleared host nation forces, it was the unclassified and shareable nature of the BuckEye data that drove its widespread adoption. In particular, special operations forces (SOF) working with their Afghan and Iraqi counterparts (not just their NATO SOF colleagues) placed special value on BuckEye’s unclassified and shareable nature, since it let them adopt the “by, 12 | GIF 12.3
with and through” approach that typifies SOF. All this was at a time when there was much handwringing and anxiety among U.S. military and intelligence decision makers about how to better achieve information sharing with mission partners. Whether because of classification or reasons of physical access, few systems successfully shared data, and frustration among mission partners was high. BuckEye data, by contrast, flowed freely among mission partners. It is notable that as U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq, the entire BuckEye dataset was given to the Iraqi government for use across its various agencies. In the U.S. and the rest of the developed world, such data is standard fare for city planners, tax assessors and first responders. This HR3D dataset became core to the governance of the new Iraqi state. It is also notable that SOF and the interagency continue to demand BuckEye HR3D terrain data to share with their host nation partners as they deploy outside of Iraq and Afghanistan. This data is not only valuable in support of military missions, but also in support of a wide range of capacity building efforts that are more akin to the typical civilian government uses for HR3D data in the developed world. SOF, as a force committed to Phase 0 shaping activities, sees unclassified, shareable, HR3D terrain data as an alternative currency that helps build relationships and build capacity in a way that helps improve regional stability.
globe are now on the books. There is strong support for the collection of shareable, unclassified HR3D terrain data, even among those that operate in the classified realm. The ISR community has a renewed appreciation for the criticality of high-resolution foundation data to the success of their enterprise. And the interagency and international partners finally have a seat at the table, where they can articulate their requirements for HR3D terrain data in support of all manner of capacity building activities. Fortunately, due to the technical lessons learned over the past decade, the expanded global collection requirements born of this expanded awareness appear to be technically feasible. R&D has yielded the ability to collect up to an order of magnitude more HR3D terrain data, in terms of area per day, per aircraft, and from much higher altitudes. We face a future where any host nation partner could enjoy, in a single aircraft, a HR3D terrain data collection capacity that is nearly double that available to the ISAF commander in 2013. The world is a big place, and the large proportion of the globe’s terrain that is unmapped at high resolution is daunting. But the next decade holds great promise, with enormous swaths of the Earth’s terrain soon mapped at human scale. The strategic value of this capability to the realization of U.S. interests and principles abroad should not be underestimated. O
BuckEye’s Next Decade In the past decade, we found ourselves unexpectedly embroiled in populationcentric operations in complex and urban terrain for which we lacked the HR3D terrain data necessary to operate as we would like. While there may well have been an opportunity to collect such HR3D terrain data in parts of Afghanistan and Iraq prior to the recent conflicts, there certainly have been permissive air environments over the past decade over many of the world’s potential flashpoints that would have allowed the proactive collection of such data. As it relates to HR3D terrain data awareness, we are better poised for the next decade than we were for the last. Validated requirements that span the
Michael A. Harper
Michael A. Harper is chief, Tactical Source Directorate, Army Geospatial Center. For more information, contact GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly at harrisond@kmimediagroup. com or search our online archives for related stories at www.gif-kmi.com.
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INDUSTRY RASTER Hyperspectral Sensor Generates High Resolution Datacubes The Hyperspec Snapshot imaging sensor from Headwall Photonics has been designed for commercial use by environmental researchers, civil engineers, and remote sensing organizations. The sensor covers the VNIR spectral range (380-1000nm) and uses diffractive optics technology comprising aberration-corrected features for high spectral and spatial resolution and outstanding signal-to-noise characteristics. This commercial product is based on Headwall’s Hyperspec Recon sensor, which is sold to U.S. military and defense customers. The Hyperspec Snapshot sensor is the industry’s first portable hyperspectral imager generating very high resolution spectral and spatial datacubes of objects within the sensor’s wide field of view. This high-performance, integrated sensor is a small form factor, fully integrated instrument designed for easy, straightforward use in the field. Chris Van Veen; cvanveen@headwallphotonics.com
Software Improves Geospatial Metadata 2d3 Sensing has launched a new version of Reticle Georegistration, as part of the latest release of its motion imagery processing, exploitation and dissemination product suite: TacitView 3.3, Catalina 3.2 and Tungsten 3.4. Reticle improves geospatial metadata for use in mapping, targeting and correcting metadata errors typical of aerial full motion video platforms. With this new release, 2d3 Sensing has extended this feature by introducing tools within the TacitView user interface that allow analysts to provide tie-points between the tactical imagery and the reference map. The result is a more rapid feature tracking solution, which enables the system to achieve georegistration with minimal latency. In addition to the latest Reticle enhancements, the most recent release of 2d3 Sensing’s product suite also includes updates in the areas of still image mosaicking, still image georectification, and the TacitView software development kit. Sabrina Alcobendas; sabrina.alcobendas@2d3sensing.com 14 | GIF 12.3
ISR Added to Online Community of Technology Providers GDNexus, a free, online community of technology providers created by General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, has expanded its focus into the ISR domain. GDNexus is a customer-centric Web portal that enables General Dynamics to take a customer’s validated mission requirements to the marketplace, providing companies with the opportunity to respond with relevant products, services and solutions. Initial ISR focus areas include analytics; signal, image and video processing; and visualization. GDNexus members can submit responses to requirements-driven Need Statements. With each Need Statement linked to a customer’s specific mission need, GDNexus creates new business opportunities for companies that might not have access to the government or insight into the mission. All member submissions are reviewed through a comprehensive and objective process. After the review, a detailed assessment is provided to the customer that describes how the most compelling solution best supports the mission needs. Jessica Howe; jessica.howe@gd-ais.com
Solution Stores Big Data from Next-Generation Sensors Redefining the economics of big data storage, BAE Systems has launched the TeraStar system, a data storage solution engineered to meet the next-generation government and military big data storage requirements while accommodating the cost and size needs of small to medium sized businesses and cloud-based storage providers. The TeraStar system’s unique design enables it to store immense volumes of data with minimal operational expense by requiring nominal physical space and using less power than traditional big data storage systems. The system’s scalable, ultra-dense storage capacity also delivers a competitive advantage to cloud-based storage providers by reducing the overall cost per terabyte of storage capacity. In addition, the TeraStar system’s design is compatible with a wide variety of storage media devices enabling substantial storage flexibility. BAE Systems developed the TeraStar solution to accommodate the massive amount of data produced by next-generation sensors. Liz Ryan Sax; liz.ryansax@baesystems.com
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Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
Collection Software Supports Satellite Imaging System Orbit Logic has announced that it will deliver Collection Planning and Analysis Workstation (CPAW) software to an undisclosed customer for an upcoming satellite imaging system. The customer will initially use CPAW for analysis to help refine the design of their imaging system as well as demonstrate system capabilities to potential customers. CPAW will later be deployed for lights-out operational planning for the same satellite imaging system. CPAW software solves the difficult problem of satellite imagery
collection planning through a spacecraft simulator coupled with scheduling algorithms that generate valid and optimized high fidelity imagery collection plans for use in satellite operations, analysis, or imagery ordering. CPAW covers everything from contact scheduling and recorder management to power and antenna modeling while accounting for clouds, terrain, timing constraints and sensor capabilities. Ella Herz; ella.herz@orbitlogic.com
Navigation Transmitters Cleared for New GPS Satellites Exelis has successfully completed and fully tested six transmitter assemblies that are integral payload components for the first in a series of the next generation of GPS III navigation satellites. The navigation payload transmitters carry high-powered GPS signals from space to Earth, benefitting military, commercial and civilian users. To ensure the space vehicle navigation payload meets performance requirements over the mission life, Exelis subjected the transmitter assemblies to a rigorous test program, which includes random vibration, pyroshock and thermal vacuum testing, replicating space-like conditions through deployment and on-orbit environments. In January 2013, Exelis received three rubidium atomic frequency standard clocks from Excelitas Technologies specifically designed for the SV 1 navigation payload of the next generation of GPS III satellites. Jane Khodos; jane.khodos@exelisinc.com
Tool Simplifies Secure Data Collaboration BAE Systems has launched SIBA, a tool that redefines and simplifies secure data collaboration and dissemination for both government and commercial customers. SIBA provides an innovative solution to secure information sharing for the nation’s intelligence community, as well as banks, law firms and users of electronic medical records. It is imperative that IC agencies are able to quickly migrate intelligence data to shared repositories, where it can be accessed securely in real time by multiple users in multiple agencies. SIBA provides this capability to any government agency or business by leveraging their existing Microsoft Office and SharePoint investments. SIBA enables analysts to tag (portion mark) specific characters, words, paragraphs and images within their documents to define need-to-know access to portions of data. This allows other users, like field personnel and coalition partners, to access redacted versions of the intelligence product, based on network access and security clearance. Charles Ratzer; charles.ratzer@baesystems.com www.GIF-kmi.com
Power-on Marks Milestone for NOAA Polar Satellite Ball Aerospace and Technologies has applied power to the Joint Polar Satellite System spacecraft bus for the first time, a significant milestone for achieving on-time delivery to NOAA for a planned early 2017 launch. Power-on is the first time that the spacecraft bus is operated as a system with the core electrical power and distribution system and the integrated components of the command and data handling subsystem. Power will be cycled on/off continuously over the next nine months of spacecraft integration and testing. The satellite is making steady progress toward a 2017 launch date, most recently completing a successful SpaceWire interoperability test. The test was a risk reduction activity to provide early verification of the network’s architecture design and implementation for high-speed communications data handling.
Parallax Visualization Toolset Enables Dimensionally Enhanced ISR Vision III Imaging, a specialist in advanced parallax visualization imaging technologies for commercial media and military ISR applications, has developed a parallax visualization toolset (PV Plug-in) for use with the Pursuer graphical user interface (GUI). Developed at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Pursuer is a Persistent Viewer GUI that assimilates wide area motion imagery (WAMI), ground-based sensor data, and narrow-field-of-view sensor overlays in one composite display for review. The PV Plug-in provides Pursuer analysts with critical alignment tools for the exploitation of spatial and temporal differences in image sequences. This exploitation allows the production of dimensionally enhanced ISR work products, which emphasize the size and spatial relationships of terrain features and of objects in areas of interest. Critical alignment allows WAMI and full motion video data sets that contain different points of view, to be visualized in a manner that renders object shapes and ambiguous surface features obvious. Autostereoscopic (automatic depth perception) ISR work products can be generated as movies that can be viewed on standard unaided displays.
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Visit DRG at GeoINT Booth 3074
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Stephen St. Mary I 617-517-3210 I sstmary@drgISR.com
Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance
Geospatial Innovator
Q& A
Research and Development to Shape the Future of GEOINT
Douglas P. McGovern Director, InnoVision National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Douglas P. McGovern is currently serving as director of InnoVision for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He previously served as the deputy director of InnoVision and championed alignment of the science, research and technology portfolio with the NGA strategic objectives and initiatives. Prior to that assignment, McGovern served as deputy chief operating officer in direct support to the director of NGA in daily management and coordination of agency operations across all key components. McGovern also served a two-year joint duty assignment at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as the IC chief architect and associate deputy director for information integration oversight and engineering. In that capacity, he led the development of the IC Joint Architecture Reference Model, the IC Information Assurance Architecture and championed the development, deployment and 24/7 operation of community technical services, including the suite of Intelink services. McGovern joined NGA’s predecessor agency in 2001, serving in senior level/executive positions as the deputy director for acquisition engineering, senior adviser for acquisition management and process improvement, and as program manager for commercial remote sensing. In these roles he led engineering efforts to modernize the National System for Geospatial Intelligence (NSG), secured a Level 3 process maturity rating for NGA acquisition in eight process areas, led acquisition business operations for the GeoScout program, and mainstreamed commercial remote sensing data across the NSG. McGovern began his government career in 1981 with the Naval Sea Systems Command, working principally in the acquisition, development and operational support of high technology projects within the Deep Submergence Systems program. He is a member of the Acquisition Professional Community, certified level III in Program Management, and holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix and a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia. Q: How would you define the mission of NGA’s InnoVision Directorate? A: InnoVision is planning and executing research and development to shape GEOINT of the future. We envision a future in www.GIF-kmi.com
which warfighters, policymakers and first responders instantly get the GEOINT they need, where they need it, and how they want it. We are crafting new ways to discover, create, share and move GEOINT knowledge and data, and seeking the capability to anticipate and answer customers’ questions before they ask. Our success relies on highly skilled and multi-disciplinary staff, R&D partners who share risks and leverage resources, and a work environment that embraces innovation, risk taking and collaboration. InnoVision performs scientific research and transitions innovative concepts and capabilities to solve the intelligence and defense communities’ most complex and enduring hard problems. We strive to be the most collaborative partner and conduct our work with intellectual rigor and adherence to principles of scientific integrity. We do this not just for NGA, but also in support of the ground, air, maritime and space needs of the National System for Geospatial Intelligence and international Allied System for Geospatial Intelligence (ASG). Q: How is the directorate organized, and where/how does it fit into the NGA organization? A: We are a line organization within NGA, along with the Source, Analysis, IT and Xperience directorates, with budget authority and a role in planning and governance to advance the agency’s mission in supporting all those elements. We’re organized to execute GIF 12.3 | 17
and transition R&D to operations, bringing together best ideas and performers in basic and applied research, advanced technology development, and systems engineering and integration. Q: Please tell readers about the Geospatial Intelligence Advancement Testbed (GIAT) and its importance to InnoVision and the agency’s future state vision.
gaps in GEOINT R&D through our participation in the broader R&D community across academia and industry. One of our longterm goals is to develop new anticipatory analytics tradecraft that take advantage of data science, spatiotemporal analysis and automated data mining and processing. Spin-off benefits address more immediate needs for streamlined tipping and cueing and more robust and timely early warning mechanisms.
A: The GIAT is NGA’s laboratory for cutting-edge research and development that integrates GEOINT with other intelligence disciplines to advance many of the intelligence community’s highestpriority science and technology challenges and respond to NGA hard problems. The GIAT pursues a technology push business model, focusing R&D on a portfolio that includes advanced hyperspectral imaging, big data analytics, GEOINT in the cloud, tracking patterns of life, and machine learning techniques to aid in predicting event probabilities. The GIAT leverages and maximizes internal talent and expertise while engaging with and exploring partnership opportunities across multiple government agencies and the Department of Defense. The GIAT provides support to NGA and our support teams around the globe. Through this support, GIAT reaches critical NGA customer communities, including the IC, DoD, combatant commands and homeland security. The GIAT is a virtually integrated solution center, delivering high-impact GEOINT R&D products, services and expertise in support of NGA’s global mission.
Q: How is NGA balancing its priorities in basic and applied research?
Q: How do you handle the tension between research to meet immediate needs and longer term research that may provide greater benefits in the future?
Q: How is NGA working to advance federal STEM initiatives?
A: We have a collaborative research and development program that accelerates science and technology-based solutions to meet near- and long-term critical intelligence needs and to shape the future of GEOINT. I believe that GEOINT of the future will be persistent, immersive and anticipatory. What do I mean by that? Persistent: to transform individual sensors and platforms into a global asset and to capture changes in our natural and built environment, including flows of ideas, people and goods. Immersive: to synthesize and manipulate data regardless of source; to change the way intelligence is produced, relying on collective judgments based on the data’s provenance and its context; and to improve how individuals orient to, intuit, perceive, attain and act on complex geospatial data. Anticipatory: to make early warning mechanisms, scenario generators and inference engines more robust; to streamline tipping and cueing; all leading to better decisions in complex operational environments with more timely and relevant intel products. Our R&D in these areas optimizes GEOINT as a foundation for integrated and contextual intelligence—helping decision-makers accurately assess trends and events and take effective action with high confidence and ground truth. Our long-term R&D efforts are responsive to IC priorities and the intent of the director of national intelligence, with nearterm gains for analysts and warfighters. We engage in a variety of forums to collaborate with partners throughout the IC and DoD to understand their needs and the solutions they’re working toward. Additionally, we maintain an awareness of trends and 18 | GIF 12.3
A: Our basic research efforts are relatively small compared to our applied research efforts, approximately a one to 10 ratio of basic to applied research. The bulk of our basic research efforts are in grants to academic institutions through our NGA University Research Initiatives (NURI) program. We have very healthy relationships with organizations that have much more robust basic research programs, such as the military service R&D organizations: the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, Defense Threat Agency, and National Science Foundation. In determining how to apply our basic research dollars, we execute an open broad agency announcement to solicit proposals from academia. The selected proposals are awarded grants through our NURI program. As the research funded by these grants matures, the results often inform our applied research efforts.
A: We actively support America’s science, technology, engineering and math initiatives. Our STEM senior adviser, Lenora Peters Gant, Ph.D., is working with colleagues in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Partnership for Public Service to brainstorm best practices and implement adaptable approaches for STEM initiatives. We’re building and cultivating appreciation and awareness of GEOINT STEM disciplines and mentoring future STEM talent. For example, we developed and implemented an unpaid STEM research program for high school students in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and St. Louis, Mo., which was a first for NGA. Additionally, InnoVision scientists are mentoring students at four adopted STEM high schools—Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia, Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in D.C., Springbrook High School Information Technology in Maryland, and the Gateway STEM High School in St. Louis. With their InnoVision mentors, the students are contributing to cloud-based computing and developing restoration algorithms, graphing algorithms for Android, and visualization software. We showcased research from our protégés during NGA’s first STEM Outreach High School Symposium, March 12 at NGA’s Springfield, Va., campus. Through these and related efforts, we’re working toward our goal of building mentoring and R&D partnerships with faculty and students that extend into their college career and potential internships with IC agencies. We’re also engaging with institutions, and local high schools and associations to increase enthusiasm for STEM through public outreach programs. NGA’s sponsorship of the Smithsonian Institution’s Time and Navigation Exhibit is a great example of www.GIF-kmi.com
this type of outreach. NGA is one of the corporate sponsors and the only IC agency engaged in the exhibition’s development since its initial design phase in 2010. Q: How is NGA partnering with academia? A: InnoVision engages with academia through a comprehensive and multidisciplinary program of basic research in geospatial intelligence topics using grants, cooperative agreements and fellowships to leading investigators, research universities and colleges. We explore innovative, high-payoff research in science and technology to support the needs and mission of NGA, focused on key challenges in evolving areas such as applied mathematics for large data analysis, modeling and prediction, new sources and sensors, understanding human activity, and development of geospatial focused curriculum at universities and colleges. Recent academic research has made important contributions to our advances in spatiotemporal data analysis, video geolocation, gravity and magnetic modeling, and spectral science. We currently have 42 active research grants with 31 universities. In addition to direct funding of academic research grants, we sponsor a visiting scientist program. Visiting scientists are research domain specialists coming from academia who work side by side with NGA staff scientists in key geospatial-intelligence technology areas. Finally, InnoVision partners with professional organizations with academic contacts such as the National
Academy of Sciences, American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS), and the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) to support new areas of research. Through contracts with the National Academy of Sciences and with ASPRS, NGA can develop studies and workshops focused on new GEOINT research directions and future science and technology workforce skills. Q: How does NGA engage the international R&D community? A: InnoVision collaborates with Commonwealth partners, including Australia’s Defense Science Technology Organisation, Defence Research and Development Canada, the U.K.’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, and New Zealand’s Defence Technology Agency. We perform R&D with these partners through a memorandum of understanding known as Square Dance. Involving both NGA and National Reconnaissance Office as members, Square Dance presents a unique opportunity to enhance production capabilities, promote interoperability, provide new environments, platforms, and data for testing, utilize each participant’s unique perspective and area of expertise, and help solve difficult problems common to all. NGA will have the privilege of serving as the chair of Square Dance beginning October 2014. InnoVision works with the ASG through the ASG Innovation and Futures Forum (AIFF). The AIFF bridges the gap between
SM
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ASG research development test and evaluation and ASG operations. Through AIFF, we can showcase potential of findings from ongoing collaborative research and highlight emergent technological trends that would augment the ASG community. In turn, the operational component of the ASG allows the ASG R&D community insight into the needs in the ASG theater. Last but not least, InnoVision engages the international R&D community through bilateral and multinational relationships. We are eager to build this aspect of our work because there is a lot of expertise within the international community that could greatly benefit NGA. Alternatively, there is significant expertise present within InnoVision that would help our partners solve difficult intelligence problems. Within our Square Dance bilateral and multinational engagements, we have ongoing collaborative research and development established through project agreements that have emerged from active, internationally funded R&D programs. Our R&D agreements take advantage of nationally prioritized research areas of overlap. In addition to leveraging resources, we gain even greater insight into potential intelligence gaps and find potential intelligence gains for the U.S. and our friends and allies.
share information and explore new ways to leverage resources with one another. GRAND has led to cross-service collaboration on projects and an increased insight into what the research and development community is doing. Overall, GRAND has proven to be a valuable forum through which individuals can connect with others, collaborate on projects and research, learn about current trends in the GEOINT R&D community, and ultimately work together to shape the future of GEOINT R&D. In addition to the important aspects of information sharing and leveraging resources, GRAND has brought the GEOINT R&D/ S&T community together in the past to develop a strategic framework. The strategic framework aligns the community’s planning for programs to establish a vision of priority research areas for near- and longer-term effort. It supports advancement of geo-referenced, spectral, and spatiotemporal R&D/S&T and creates an objective cross-community backdrop for advice and recommendations on GEOINT-related R&D activities and investments to individual agency leadership, the GEOINT functional manager, and IC/DoD decision-makers. It offers unprecedented opportunities for the IC and DoD to understand the work and respond to world events in ways never before imagined.
Q: How is NGA working across U.S. agencies to advance GEOINT R&D?
Q: Can you provide examples of how NGA is partnering with industry on research and technology?
A: In 2013, InnoVision saw the opportunity to improve coordination of GEOINT R&D within and across agencies. At the time, there was no easy way for scientists and managers to share what they were working on, or discover others’ research. We created geoLynx as a single platform to share and discover GEOINT R&D across the IC and DoD. GeoLynx stores user-created, user-edited information about people, projects, events, organizations and documents related to GEOINT R&D. When we thought about what would make the site successful, the user experience was foremost on our minds. We knew that it needed to be user friendly. A feature of geoLynx is how it presents you with relevant information before you know to search for it. It does this by comparing everything in geoLynx to identify similar content. To speed up development time, we used an industry-leading indexing and search platform. The more novel way geoLynx connects you with relevant information is by proactively alerting you to content you previously expressed interest in. This carries with it two advantages to members of the geoLynx community. First, information is presented without requiring members to stop and search. It also means that they can be connected to relevant content without having to first learn keywords or jargon from another field. Using these tools, geoLynx brings relevant content out of the background noise so that we are all better aware of what’s happening in the community related to our work. We also knew that keeping costs low and flexibility high were key to long-term success. To that end, we identified open source software to meet agency requirements. This gives us the advantage of a large community of developers improving the software that we then apply to our site as well as permitting additional broad based downstream development of the capability. We promote greater collaboration and information sharing through the GEOINT Research and Development (GRAND) Subcommittee. GRAND is open to participation from across the IC, DoD and partner communities, offering a unique venue to
A: One of the ways we do this is through our In-Q-Tel program, a strategic investor with strong ties to the venture capital community—well known for being able to engage with cutting edge, small, start-up companies, and innovators and entrepreneurs of technology. Through this program we partner with several new companies each year and try to tackle a wide variety of challenges by finding agile solutions for technology gaps. For example, we are very excited about many of the new industry partnerships that we’ve formed in just the past six months, including (but not limited to) HyTrust, SpiderCloud, SkyBox, MapBox and Boundless. These innovators can help bring advanced technologies and innovative tools and applications to the NGA workforce. Another mechanism that we use is cooperative research and development agreements (CRADA). Right now we have approximately 30 active CRADAs in place, and this allows us to discover innovation, prove a concept and work with great minds to help deliver the future for NGA as well as industry and academia GEOINT stakeholders. CRADAs are open to any U.S. company or educational institution that can show the need for NGA’s R&D related assistance. We have approximately 20 other CRADAs in the pipeline pending approval. Some of the new CRADAs that we’ve formed over the past six months are with 2d3 Sensing, Urban Robotics, Boeing, DigitalGlobe, MotionDSP, USGIF, and the University of Tennessee. It’s an excellent way for us to leverage industry and academic expertise to work on practical initiatives that address specific requirements and advance our strategy, The In-Q-Tel and CRADA efforts are run out of the InnoVision Directorate’s Industry Outreach Office. NGA also has other robust programs through which forward-thinking industry partners can interact with us, including the Industry Interaction Program and the Small Business Program Office. NGA also uses the Small Business Innovative Research program to support excellence and technological innovation through small businesses. The goal of this program is to stimulate technological innovation, meet
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federal research needs, and increase private sector commercialization of innovations. Q: What is your process for obtaining input from your community about research priorities? A: The GEOINT R&D Emerging Technology Trends program is one of our primary means to seek community input on research priorities. While the main focus of the GEOINT R&D Emerging Technology Trends effort is to identify new and promising technologies rather than requirements, this broad community engagement on GEOINT technology provides a forum for discussing how new breakthroughs from industry, government labs and academia can address today’s hard GEOINT problems. By bringing the GEOINT community’s R&D leadership together to discuss and evaluate relevant R&D, the NSG Emerging Technologies Working Group identifies not only promising technologies, but also anticipates the user demands that new technologies, including smartphones, cloud computing, micro-satellites and inexpensive UAVs, continue to create. Q: How are you working to implement Director Long’s Future State Vision of immersive intelligence? A: The fully immersive intelligence experience of tomorrow requires breaking down technological, logistical, cultural, or bureaucratic
barriers between collectors, analysts, customers, and decision-makers. Our twin aims are to enhance the dynamic representation of GEOINT data and to increase analysts’ capacity for sense making. Immersive intelligence gives analysts on-demand access to data, analytics and intelligence in whatever format, style, or modality is best. We don’t yet know what form the immersive intelligence environment may take. It could be a virtual multimedia and gaming environment, instantaneous access to multi-INT data in the cloud, on-demand generation of dynamic, 3-D spatial/temporal products, or any or all of these things. The immersive intelligence environment is infused with realworld data and tools necessary to analytic tradecraft. For example, we are collaborating with NRO and Army Training and Doctrine Command on the Geospatial Metaverse, a multi-dimensional virtual earth environment patterned after massive multiplayer online game concepts delivering enhanced situational awareness through immersive visualization of crowd-sourced, curated data. The Spatial Interface Lab is an exploratory research project to understand and improve human performance in GEOINT. The GeoNarrative project explores alternative frameworks for large scale data ingest, processing and exploitation of data, and novel approaches to presentation of analytic results. This is just a sampling of the efforts we are undertaking to lead the community toward a robust persistent model of the world that enables an anticipatory analysis within a customizable immersive intelligence experience at the speed of human cognition. It is an exciting time to be in R&D. O
Visit us at GEOINT booth #7071
Visit us at GEOINT booth #7071
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New gaming technologies bring enhanced capabilities to location-based training and intelligence analysis. By Karen E. Thuermer GIF Correspondent Technology advances are bringing the worlds of geospatial intelligence/GIS and electronic gaming closer, and opening new vistas for both. The benefits of this synergy may be most obvious to players of the widely popular games, which increasingly are being grounded in real locations with the help of detailed geographic data. But what may be less well known are the potential advantages that new gaming technologies can bring to location-based training and intelligence analysis. Combining geographical information systems with today’s gaming technology allows users to perceive and understand complex geospecific environments from within a simulated virtual environment. For this reason, companies such as Esri see a growing opportunity to create geographically accurate environments, especially as more publicly available open source GIS, such as openstreetmap, becomes available. “This is where we start to see GIS informing the content or context creation aspect of game and simulation development,” said Brooks Patrick, solutions engineer for 3-D markets at Esri. Kristin Blier, GIS analyst for MetaVR, stressed that gaming technology not only provides valuable skills and experience to the end-user, but also allows the user to perceive and understand their surroundings within a simulated training environment. “This type of gaming technology and workflow can result in valuable real-world training benefits,” she said. There is also increasing value in game engines and immersive hardware within urban planning and design visualization. “The ability to render 3-D city models in real time offers the chance to walk down the street,” commented Patrick. “The real value is that our 3-D GIS technology is based on authoritative GIS data, so in effect you are seeing a symbolized world or virtual reality.” With Esri's CityEngine and the ArcGIS platform, multiple views of the same data can essentially be parametrically draped over the 3-D model, thus offering much more than just a rendered snapshot as seen in many other applications. 22 | GIF 12.3
"We believe that leveraging gaming inspired techniques may improve the overall user experience in working with GIS tools,” said Frank Tanner, chief scientist, Hadron Industries, pointing to development of geographically distributed real-time user experience synchronization, or massively multi-player online gaming. “I would argue that the real-time, distributed gaming capabilities enabled by Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network, Steam, and other gaming communities are one of those technologies that we often overlook when talking about gaming’s impact,” Tanner remarked. “The ability to synchronize data-rich applications in real time across distributed—possibly low bandwidth—communications is something we should analyze and adapt more broadly for GIS.” Andrew Tosh, founder and president of Game Sim, said he has seen an intersection of needs among the different industries his company works with: gaming, military simulation and GIS. “If you were to look at the needs of a military simulator, you will find a lot of commonality with the needs of a military-themed video game,” Tosh said. “Additionally, that simulator would require having real-world environments, which is something the GIS community can help address.” Game Sim’s earliest projects involved building realistic training environments for soldiers from a large variety of GIS data sources. “This experience in working with high volumes of GIS data for environment construction carries over to creating tools and techniques that can benefit the GIS industry as a whole,” he added. “The gaming industry has been pushing hard to provide better graphics for the past few decades,” said Tosh. “The amount of processing that can be performed by modern game engines, in conjunction with modern graphics cards, is resulting in incredibly impressive visuals with real-time performance. In the GIS industry, we are seeing increasingly complex data products, such as point clouds. The GIS tools used to process this content can take advantage of technology coming from the game community.” www.GIF-kmi.com
GIS Implementation
Barriers to Use
Gaming has provided a lot of high-quality systems for fast processing of data that can be used for 3-D visualization. “3-D graphics cards with graphics processing units are driving the gaming market for personal computers and have dramatically lowered the cost barrier for visualizing large amounts of imagery data,” reported Blier. “As well, the 3-D modeling tools that were developed for the gaming market and the 3-D artists themselves have made turning GIS data such as groundlevel geo-tagged photographs and satellite imagery into 3-D building models a very efficient process with a great deal of realism.” But industry experts contend that GIS products need to take Kristin Blier greater advantage of game engines and general gaming methodologies for the purpose of providing fast visualization of massive amounts of GIS content. From MetaVR’s perspective, game engines themselves have far less value in the GIS visualization market, as they tended to be developed around small ultra-realistic geotypical areas that do not scale for large round-earth simulation in the way MetaVR’s Metadesic 3-D terrain format does. “It is not unusual to see a gamebased simulation company tout their large terrain databases of 100 by 100 kilometers, or 1,000 by 1,000 kilometers, whereas our customers require whole country or continent 3-D terrain coverage for a given simulation training exercise,” Blier said. By using real world 3-D terrain and combining geospecific 3-D models of buildings and other structures, one can bring a city to life from within a geospecific simulated gaming environment. Combining real-world photographic imagery, such as aerial or satellite imagery, elevation data, and vector features with geosocial scenarios, such as urban warfare training, can prepare soldiers for possible real life combat situations. “Far too many gaming technologies are being used today only as a simple replacement for a keyboard, mouse, and/or monitor in a one-off and experimental way,” Tanner remarked.”For example, you can use an Xbox Kinect or Leap Motion to control Google Earth or use a game controller to do broad area search in ArcGIS, but so what? Does it fundamentally change the user experience? For the most part, you have just taken one input device and exchanged it for another.” Consequently, many believe that gaming technology just “isn’t there” yet. In other words, the fidelity of the current generation of devices like Leap, Kinect 2, or even display devices like the Oculus Rift just isn’t ripe for large scale, highly accurate deployments yet. “That’s why we base our reference system on higher-end Hollywood technology like Vicon motion capture devices and large triptych style displays,” said Tanner. "Unfortunately, these technologies are too expensive and in some cases too cumbersome for mass deployments. Where I think the gaming industry will help immensely is driving down the cost of advanced technology so that today’s $50,000 motion-capture system is tomorrow’s consumer-level device.”
Despite the fact that gaming holds great potential for military and intelligence uses, there are barriers such as limited awareness for the value that GIS offers in content creation for environment modeling. “It seems to me that the intelligence and military communities have enough funding, and can engage a large captive audience in their personnel,” commented Ola Ahlqvist, Ph.D., director of the Service-Learning Initiative and associate professor of geography at Ohio State University. “So in that way, they have access to some important factors that smaller game developers struggle with. But on the other hand, the plethora of indie developers and Andrew Tosh start-ups will be able to test far more ideas than any government body.” Ahlqvist argued that it would be productive if all that experimentation could be leveraged to address key needs of the GIS community. The problem remains, however, that although a lot of GIS work is performed at every level of the government, access to the most modern computer systems is not always available. “We need to educate our government users on why it is important to use systems that
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have advanced capabilities, such as modern graphics cards, for example,” Tosh said. Another problem is the general stigma around gaming technologies. “Most people conjure to mind virtual worlds and other similar hokey implementations whenever the word ‘gaming' is used,” said Michael Campanelli, senior systems engineer for RadiantBlueTechnologies. “But done right, users should not explicitly know that ‘gaming technology’ is behind their score, achievement level or exploitation progress bar. The theory and techniques being employed are universal and are best left behind the curtain.” Although there is plenty of anecdotal evidence of performance gains based on work with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Sim’s Conform is a tool that can process large master databases and provide near real-time 2-D and 3-D visualizations of Agency and the Air Force Research Game content, such as these images displaying elevation, feature and imagery data from Switzerland. [Image courtesy of Game Sim] Laboratory (AFRL), there’s still a need for peerAnother issue concerns the reluctance of both big companies in reviewed studies on human performance using gaming technologies. the gaming industry and the military/intelligence communities to “And specifically for DoD/IC clients, security of products and share their “trade secrets.” technologies is always an issue,” Tanner said. “Many of the gaming “It will be necessary to bring experts from both areas into the technologies that are leveraged have cameras or other sensors that same room to have open conversations about goals and methods,” may cause security officers concern.” said Ahlqvist. “While it might be possible to find collaboration soluFurthermore, most GIS tools have long development cycles. tions, it may also be more effective to constantly monitor and incen"Gaming technologies move quickly, and if GIS software makers can tivize small developers to address some key questions and recruit open up product application programming interfaces, next-generathose that show most promise.” tion input devices can be integrated to provide better user experience,” Tanner argued. The current paradigm for GIS tools is also to provide huge Synthetic Environment amounts of functionality. “While this emphasis provides useful tools, we think there is room for lighter-weight, more targeted GIS tools, Those in the industry maintain that the military needs to be almost like the focus of apps on a smartphone,” he added. “This will able to take GIS data products and fuse them together into a comspeed development time, and provide better targeted tools to the varimon synthetic environment. This environment is used for trainety of end users.” ing as well as operations. Game Sim, for example, recently released Finally, developers need to focus more on the end-user, Tanner Conform, which Tosh described as a powerful tool that helps with said. “Developers of games must do this, because the user is the buyer that fusion. in most cases. For many GIS systems, it’s often the case that the endConform is already in use through an Army program, SE Core, user and the developers rarely interact. A more agile which integrated it to execute acceptance test procedevelopment process, with a strong emphasis on fredures. “They selected Conform mainly because it is quent user testing and in the field research, will help a tool that can process their large master databases lead to better-designed GIS products.” and provide near real-time 2-D and 3-D visualizations Taking another perspective, Blier argued that of their content,” Tosh said. “This ability is a direct a major barrier is the inability to find accurate and result of our use of game rendering techniques.” affordable GIS data in a timely manner, with reasonAnother example is the Small Business able use rights to facilitate distribution with commerInnovative Research work done by Hadron Industries cial software products. for AFRL, entitled “Naturalistic Operator Interface for “While imagery has become much more available Immersive Environments.” than ever, it is not unusual to receive a quote for mul“AFRL’s problem was that UAV operators have an Michael Campanelli tiple millions of dollars for 1-meter-per-pixel imagery inherent detachment from the physical battlespace,” coverage of a single small county,” she said. said Tanner. “This is obvious given that they are To address this, MetaVR has developed its own imagery collection remotely piloted aircraft.” mechanism based upon a small hand-launched radio-controlled airConsequently, Hadron implemented a multi-modal (gesture and craft that can be upgraded to a UAV. The aircraft is outfitted with a speech) command and control system to navigate a synthetic 3-D 22 mm digital camera. “We can now rapidly collect 1-inch-per-pixel environment. imagery for small areas (15 by 15 km) within a day and provide the RadiantBlue is currently working to provide forward-leaning end user full use rights,” she explained. “As graphics cards for the solutions for structured observation management and object based game industry advance, we are able to push the 3-D synthetic enviproduction, two new approaches being adopted by the IC as part of ronment to greater levels of realism.” a paradigm shift in the way it captures information. 24 | GIF 12.3
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training scenarios,” she said. “Users can simply drag and drop models onto 3-D terrain and build up densely populated areas.” Also, users can easily script the paths of vehicles, airplanes and character models, and render these scenarios in VRSG. In VRSG, users can play back the scenarios in a networked environment, and also record their scenarios. MetaVR’s geospatial tools are used for applications such as UAS trainers, manned flight simulators, mission planning and rehearsal, simulation training, urban operations training, and emergency management training. Recently, the company created a 3-D terrain database of the port city of Kismayo, Somalia, to meet the current needs of the U.S. military and its allies. “To add to the realism of the virtual city, ground-level photographs taken on the streets of Kismayo were used for the creation of hundreds of 3-D geospecific building models,” Blier added. “Multiple GIS data sources, such as road vectors, aerial imagery and elevation data, were compiled into this geospecific terrain database.” Esri CityEngine is a 3-D modeling software application developed by Esri R&D Center Zurich, formerly Procedural Inc. Specializing in the generation of 3-D urban environments, CityEngine had its initial widespread adoption in film and game development, something which Esri has seen continue to grow. In fact, CityEngine’s procedural tools for the creation of complete 3-D cities have been successfully used in several recent Hollywood blockbusters. “Creating realistic 3-D models has been a notoriously laborintense process, typically involving teams of set designers and
Image Courtesy of f the DoD.
“Our technical solutions currently do not employ any techniques from gaming technologies, but our designs leave room for that implementation at a later date,” Campanelli reported. “Gamification is something I feel could be used as a method and means for widespread adoption of new information/intelligence gathering methods/practices.” Gamification is the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems. MetaVR's set of Terrain Tools for ArcGIS enables users to turn their geospatial data into real-time 3-D terrain from within their GIS software. “These geospatial tools allow users to create realworld 3-D terrain with GIS data,” Blier said. “Geospatial users can take their source data and essentially bring it to life as a high-fidelity virtual world rendered in real time in our image generator.” In addition, MetaVR’s 3-D visualization application, Virtual Reality Scene Generator (VRSG), renders geospecific imagery over expansive terrain databases while providing advanced visual features such as full-scene anti-aliasing and continuous level-ofdetail morphing. “This makes our technology equally well suited for the training environments of flight simulation, and rehearsing ground-level tactical missions in conflicted urban areas,” Blier remarked. VRSG Scenario Editor enables users to build up scenarios on real-world 3-D terrain. “With this software, one can easily create ground vehicle simulations, simulate the pattern of life with realistic 3-D character models, and ultimately create mission rehearsal
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GIF 12.3 | 25
multiple specialized software programs,” Patrick remarked. “Think of the all tedious work invested in movies to model cities like London, Paris, Tokyo or New York with several hundred thousand housing units by hand. CityEngine’s procedural nature gives you the power to literally create infinite building variations, with full control over all parameters of each building, including the level of detail.” When it comes to procedural modeling, Patrick said, rules offer unlimited possibilities to interactively drive the modeling process and rapidly generate massive cityscapes. “These rules are defined in CityEngine’s proprietary CGA Shape Grammar, enabling the creation of complex building forms. “Now that same technology is fully integrated with our GIS data formats like the Geodatabase and even OSM OpenStreetMap files. A procedural rule can be applied directly to a building footprint, tree point, or street centerline, and then read the attributes on the shape in order to generate the 3-D model. These attributes don’t even need to exist on the original shape, but can exist in the rule itself and be revealed through an interface allowing users to model with rule parameters,” Patrick added.
Future Direction Game engines and immersive hardware will continue to add value to the work currently being done in 3-D GIS offering more rendered realism.
Hadron Industries recently implemented a multi-modal (gesture and speech) command and control system to navigate a synthetic 3-D environment. [Photo courtesy of Hadron Industries]
“We are seeing that this enhanced 3-D is giving everyday 2-D GIS operations increasingly more public exposure, and in effect more public interest and oversight in the planning procedures that continue to shape our real places,” Patrick said. With the industry continuing to evolve and advance, more “playful” solutions to various kinds of GIS practices are expected to come on line. This can include disaster situations and crowd-sourcing of information in 311 systems. “These have shown to be very effective, and the use of some game dynamics could provide the right incentive in other areas where people’s motivation would not otherwise be enough to participate,” commented Ahlqvist. In addition, observers say the ability to visualize an environment fused together from various data products, such as LiDAR, imagery and vectors, in near real time will become a requirement for GIS products. “It’s a base capability that users will come to expect,” he said. “If tool providers are not utilizing the technology coming out of the gaming industry, they will find themselves at a disadvantage to the competition.” Tanner said he sees a new focus on the overall human experience as development cycles start to match the available technology. He also predicts that gaming will push the envelope of human computer interaction to make higher quality devices affordable for massive GIS deployment. “At a more basic level, we need a ‘killer app’ for this type of technology that doesn’t even have to be in GIS—just something that illustrates how the technology can help solve real-world problems,” he said. That’s because many organizations buy the newest technology but then let it sit in the corner because no one knows how to apply the technology to solving problems. “We need to have the right developers creating tools that leverage the technology to solve a problem,” he said. “Once we have a few killer apps demonstrating the potential, I think we’ll have wider adoption and the technology will begin to permeate.” O
For more information, contact GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly at harrisond@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.gif-kmi.com.
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GIF RESOURCE CENTER Advertisers Index 2D3 Sensing............................................................................................ 23 www.2d3sensing.com Airbus Defense & Space............................................................................3 www.airbus.com American Military University................................................................. 25 www.publicsafetyatamu.com/gif BAE Systems.............................................................................................. 1 www.baesystems.com/gxp BAE Systems............................................................................................C3 www.baesystems.com/gxp Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp...................................................... 13 www.ballaerospace.com Concurrent Technologies Corporation.................................................. 19 www.ctc.com/cloudsolutions DI2E Plugfest.......................................................................................... 26 www.afei.org/events/4a07 Digital Globe...........................................................................................C2 digitalglobe.com/egd Digital Results Group............................................................................. 16 www.drgisr.com Exelis Visual Information Solutions........................................................ 5 www.exelisvis.com/gif General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems...............................C4 www.gd-ais.com LizardTech............................................................................................... 11 www.lizardtech.com/tryit MetaVR...................................................................................................... 9 www.metavr.com Riverside Research................................................................................... 7 www.riversideresearch.org Woolpert Inc........................................................................................... 21 www.woolpert.com
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May 12-15, 2014 AUVSI Unmanned Systems Orlando, Fla. www.auvsishow.org
July 14-18, 2014 Esri International User Conference San Diego, Calif. www.esri.com
May 19-22, 2014 Space Symposium Colorado Springs, Colo. www.spacefoundation.org
September 15-17, 2014 Air and Space Conference National Harbor, Md. www.afa.org
May 19-21, 2014 Location Intelligence Washington, D.C. www.locationintelligence.net
October 13-15, 2014 AUSA Annual Meeting Washington, D.C. www.ausa.org
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May/June 2014 Vol. 12, Issue 4
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GIF 12.3 | 27
INDUSTRY INTERVIEW
Geospatial Intelligence Forum
Mark Testoni President SAP NS2 Q: Are you currently developing new products and services relevant to military and government customers that you hope to bring to the market in the future?
Q: What types of products and services are you offering to military and other government customers? A: SAP National Security Services is a powerful new alternative in the market, with technologies and business models designed to meet today’s threats. SAP NS2 offers the full suite of enterprise applications, analytics, database, cybersecurity, cloud and mobility software solutions from SAP, with specialized levels of security and support to meet the mission requirements of certain U.S. customers. We also offer consulting and support services from credentialed experts in the national security space—all with U.S. citizens, inside the U.S. running through secure networks. The market is now more competitive, which means more innovation to help the government customer serve its mission. The information technology business has dramatically changed in the past decade. Customers are demanding better, more timely information for decisions— to be able to predict, anticipate or influence outcomes—and more rapid, less expensive implementation of new solutions. Traditional computing and application models won’t support the geometric increase in the information we need to analyze. So all of us are heavily pushing toward new models—most notably inmemory computing, which allows customers to rapidly ingest and assess huge volumes of structured and unstructured information, including include audio, video and geospatial. Companies and governments are already leveraging SAP’s inmemory solution, called HANA, and we believe the national security space can really benefit from it. We’re prototyping some use cases with customers today, and the initial results are very promising. We believe the business results we see today commercially with SAP HANA have potential to be transformative for our national security customers as well. NS2 supports many customers in the national security community, in the aerospace 28 | GIF 12.3
A: It’s about innovation and competition. We’re bringing the same solutions used by top companies and government agencies—plus the resources of a $95 billion market cap company—to meet the needs of the most security-sensitive customers in the U.S. NS2 brings agile business models to a sector that needs new ideas under the current budget environment.
A: Yes. We strive to focus our solutions to create rapid value while leveraging existing investment under the umbrella of “simplicity” for our customers. For example, NS2 has prototyped a use case for the SAP HANA platform that can analyze huge volumes of multi-INT data with geospatial context, so it provides a map-driven approach to analyzing multifaceted data with the speed of in-memory computing. This gives commanders and analysts the power of “analysis at the speed of thought” for C2 and ISR missions. Also, because multiple analysis engines reside in the platform, it eliminates a lot of data movement between separate computing platforms. Without transporting the data to separate servers, analysts can have access to predictive analysis, a graph engine for link analysis, and unstructured text processing—all with geospatial context. That can shrink the infrastructure footprint, simplify operations and maintenance, and reduce costs. There’s also a reduction in specialized skills needed to operate and maintain the overall system because data integration is based on open standards and commonly available skill sets.
Q: How are you working to strengthen the security of your solutions?
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
A: All SAP solutions are designed and delivered with multiple layers of security and information assurance; SAP NS2 delivers solutions with specialized levels of security to meet our customers’ mission requirements. In one new initiative on the cloud front, we’re establishing a Secure Cloud Node, which will offer secure, cloud-based solutions in government, private, hybrid and on-premises cloud models.
A: At a time when U.S. national security organizations face an array of unprecedented problems—new conflict zones, cyber-threats, floods of data, and constant demands for budget cuts and auditability—traditional technologies and business models won’t keep up. National security requires solutions for this new paradigm, and we are working hard to be a provider they want in their evolving portfolio. O
and defense sector, and in highly regulated industries such as banking and utilities. Our solutions run some of the most demanding and sensitive programs in the world. Q: What unique benefits does your company provide its customers in comparison with other companies in your field?
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