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480th seeks new ways to get intel to troops

While those who fly unmanned aerial vehicles have gotten much of the attention recently in the ISR world, it is intelligence analysts who do the critical work of turning data gathered by UAVs and other platforms into information that war fighters can use.

But with a projected need for some 2,000 more active-duty intelligence airmen to keep up with the glut of data being collected, the 480th Intelligence Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Va., is figuring out new ways of getting more and better intelligence out of its people and systems.

“Because we have so much growth going on, especially in the UAV video feeds, we’re always looking at ways to more effectively use the limited personnel resources that we have,” said Lt. Col. Jill Singleton, commander of the Pacific Air Intelligence Squadron at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, one of the 480th’s subordinate units.

The 480th, part of the Air Force ISR Agency, operates the Air Force’s Distributed Common Ground System, a network of five sites worldwide that receives and analyzes data collected by intelligence platforms and feeds intelligence products into a globally accessible system. DCGS is located at five bases: Hickam, Langley, Beale Air Force Base, Calif.; Osan Air Base, South Korea; and Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

While each of those sites has a regional focus, each also spends a good deal of its time working on taskings from operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Singleton said the bulk of her unit’s work is in support of the wars rather than the Pacific theater. Requests from the U.S. Central Command theater include everything from using a Predator to observe a raid by U.S. soldiers to scanning convoy routes for roadside bombs.

The 480th at Langley receives those requests and farms them out to its subordinate DCGS sites.

But even with that networked setup, Singleton said it is a challenge to keep up with the war zone’s appetite for intelligence. That has led her to think like a business person, trying to squeeze efficiency out of her staff and make sure she isn’t wasting resources creating products that her customers — usually troops on the ground — don’t want or need.

For each round-the-clock UAV orbit, about six intelligence airmen are needed to analyze the full-motion video and ship intelligence products — such as maps showing houses visited by targeted insurgents or where certain vehicles stopped — to ground commanders in theater.

“We’re always looking at exactly how many people it takes to do this work and how many feeds we can cover simultaneously with a [small] number of people,” Singleton said. The analysts also communicate directly with soldiers and joint terminal attack controllers, or JTACs, on the ground via e-mail or online chat software to find out what support they need.

Singleton’s unit is conducting exchanges with the other services’ intelligence units so her personnel can work more effectively with them.

The squadron does exchanges with the Army’s 205th Military Intelligence Battalion at nearby Camp Smith in which the units exchange imagery analysts for three months at a time.

Singleton also has regular meetings with the battalion leadership, and her unit will do DCGS training with the 25th Infantry Division before its upcoming deployment. Singleton also is planning future exchanges with the Navy.