Unmanned: Drones, Data, and the Illusion of Perfect Warfare
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34. Henry Canaday, “Seeing More with Hyperspectral Imaging,” Geospatial Intelligence Forum (GIF) 11.2, p. 21.
35. National Air Intelligence Center PowerPoint Briefing, Hyperspectral Collection and Analysis System (HyCAS) ACTD, n.d. (June 2003); DOD, Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB 2012 Office of Secretary of Defense, PE 0604648D8Z: Joint Capability Technology Demonstration Transition (JCTD), February 2011, p. 4.
36. USAF, HyCAS ACTD Management Plan, January 7, 2003.
37. “Combat Identification is the process of attaining an accurate characterization of detected objects in the battle space to the extent that a high confidence, timely application of tactical options, and weapons resources can occur. Depending on the situation and the tactical decisions that must be made, this characterization will be at least, but may not be limited to, ‘friend,’ ‘enemy,’ or ‘neutral.’ Combat identification functions encompass cooperative and non-cooperative identification capabilities”; see JCS, Joint Pub 3-01, February 5, 2007.
38. Department of the Army, Military Intelligence Reference Guide, MI Publication 2-0.1, June 2010, p. B-1.
39. PowerPoint Briefing, Tom Dee, Director, Defense Biometrics, OSD AT&L, DDR&E; DOD Biometrics; Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), April 22, 2008.
40. “The committee understands that there are also additional ‘soft’ biometrics, such as gait, keystroke, or analysis of body markings, which could also be useful in identifying specific individuals, and could be done from greater stand-off distances. The committee notes that some research has been conducted by the air force Research Laboratory, as well as other civilian research agencies to better characterize the utility and operational challenges of such modalities, but that the current biometrics architecture does not yet integrate any of these capabilities. The committee encourages the Department to examine all biometric modalities as it develops its future biometrics architecture.” See U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014, Report of the Committee on Armed Services, June 7, 2013, p. 129.
41. SOCOM PowerPoint Briefing, Bonny Heet, SBIR Program Manager, Overview of the USSOCOM Program Executive Offices, USSOCOM/SORDAC-ST, March 20, 2013; PowerPoint Briefing, Dr. Thomas Killion, Director, BIMA; Biometrics: Impact, Opportunities & Challenges, 2012 EUCOM 3rd Annual Information, Innovation, Integration, and Technology (i3T) Conference, February 16, 2012; PowerPoint Briefing, Tom Dee, Director, Defense Biometrics, OSD AT&L, DDR&E; DOD Biometrics; NDIA Disruptive Technologies, September 5, 2007.
42. PowerPoint Briefing, Tom Dee, Director, Defense Biometrics, OSD AT&L, DDR&E; DOD Biometrics; NDIA Disruptive Technologies, September 5, 2007.
43. “Technical, geospatial, and intelligence information derived through interpretation or analysis using advanced processing of all data collected by imagery or imagery-related collection systems. Amplification: This definition of AGI, also known as Imagery-Derived MASINT, includes all types of information technically derived from the processing, exploitation, and non-literal analysis (to include integration or fusion) of spectral, spatial, temporal, radiometric, phase history, and polarimetric data. These types of data can be collected on stationary and moving targets by electro-optical, infrared, radar, and related sensor programs (both active and passive). AGI also includes both ancillary data needed for data processing/exploitation and signature information (to include development, validation, simulation, data archival, and dissemination). (Joint Pub 2-03 Draft Feb 2006).” See NGA, National System for Geospatial Intelligence, Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Basic Doctrine, Publication 1-0, September 2006, p. 45.
44. Keith J. Masback, USGIF from the Desk of the President, Geospatial Intelligence Forum (GIF) 8.6, p. 5.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN X.Men
1. Paula Pomianowski, Richard Delanoy, Jonathan Kurz, and Gary Condon, “Silent Hammer,” Lincoln Laboratory Journal, Volume 16, Number 2, 2007; Marianna J. Verett, Performance and Usage of Biometrics in a Testbed Environment for Tactical Purposes, Naval Postgraduate School, December 2006, p. 11.
2. See Age of Sacred Terror, p. 319. Shelton later expressed respect for Richard Clarke, the main memo-writer of the Clinton administration, but does say “he would come in from watching a Rambo movie or something and present some wild-haired idea that would brief well—but when you looked at the reality of it, of what it would really take to pull it off, it was far better suited for an episode of NCIS than a real-life situation in which lives were on the line”; Hugh Shelton with Ronald Levinson and Malcolm McConnell, Without Hesitation (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2010), p. 353.
3. Mazzetti in The Way of the Knife, p. 89, tells the tale repeated in the 9/11 Commission report, and I’ll repeat it here, though other sources have also told me that it wasn’t Clinton who expressed such sentiment but one of his subordinates.
4. “Madeleine’s War,” Time magazine, May 17, 1999.
5. The year is 1995 or 1996: “The CSG [the White House Counterterrorism Security Group] also considered direct action, examining options for attacks on bin Laden’s and/or Turabi’s facilities in and around Khartoum [in Sudan]. The White House requested the Pentagon to develop plans for a U.S. Special Forces operation against al Qaeda-related facilities in Sudan. Weeks later a Pentagon team briefed National Security Advisor Tony Lake and other Principals in Lake’s West Wing office…. While the Joint Staff dutifully briefed the plan, they recommended against it…. [Lake responds that the plan is nothing short of war. “The military briefing leader nodded: That’s what we do, sir. If you want covert, there’s the CIA.”]; Richard Clarke, Against all Enemies, p. 141.
6. See Michael A. Sheehan, Crush the Cell (New York: Crown, 2008), p. 120; Age of Sacred Terror, p. 319.
7. The Special Reconnaissance Capability (SRC) Program “exploits, leverages, and integrates DOD’s service and agency efforts to improve surveillance and reconnaissance tools (unattended sensors, tagging devices, data infiltration/exfiltration, remote delivery, and mobility/delivery of sensors), while providing risk reduction for DOD and other agency technology and development programs. The SRC Program identifies, integrates, and operationalizes the technical tools for the collection of actionable information against a variety of targets and mission requirements, including Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), and maintains DOD’s on-line catalog of tools in order to minimize crisis response time for special reconnaissance and surveillance.” DOD, FY 2007 Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification, SOLIC Advanced Development—PE 0603 12 1 D8Z, February 2006.
Within the budgetary and procurement world of U.S. Special Operations Command, SRC is also referred to as Special Reconnaissance, Surveillance, & Exploitation (SRSE).
8. Department of the Army, Intelligence, FM 2-0, May 2004, pp. 4–9; Terms & Definitions of Interest for Counterintelligence Professionals, October 2013, p. GL-284, quoting JP 3-05, Special Operations, April 18, 2011.
9. William Murray, “Tagging, Tracking & Locating: TTL Systems Empower SOF to Spot and Eliminate Dangers,” Special Operations Technology (SOTECH 11-1), February 2013.
10. Defense Science Board 2004 Summer Study on Transition to and from Hostilities, December 2004, pp. 158–160.
11. “Argos Doppler tags (known as platform transmitter terminals, or PTTs) are electronic tags that send periodic signals to Argos transmitters on polar-orbiting satellites. Receiving stations located around the globe collect the data from the satellites and send it to a processing center, where location estimates are made by measuring the Doppler shift on the signals sent by the tag. The location estimates are typically much less accurate than those made with a GPS, but the tags can be much lighter than GPS units and can also be used to transmit GPS locations if the tag is properly equipped. Compared to the types of tags described below, these tags are relatively expensive and heavier, but allow for location measurements from anywhere on the globe.” Information from Movebank, “a free, online database of animal tracking data hosted by the Max Planck Institut
e for Ornithology”; www.movebank.org/ (accessed May 19, 2014).
12. “AIT is a collection of enabling technologies including linear and two-dimensional bar codes, radio frequency identification (RFID), smart cards, memory cards, laser cards, touch memory, voice and biometrics identification. These technologies provide timely and accurate automatic capture, aggregation and transfer of data to management information systems with minimal human involvement.” See DOD FY 2000 Budget Request, OPAF/Other Base Maintenance & Support Equipment, February 1999.
13. “This system was capable of delivering GPS position reports every five minutes and sends messages both among users and to various higher headquarters. It utilizes a software program called TracerLink mapping software and MTS Messenger simultaneously so that users can send messages and view their position (and the position of others in their group) at the same time. These software programs are viewed as pop-up windows through the use of the Windows based operating systems. This first rendition of MTS used an external Precision Lightweight GPS Receiver (PLGR) for GPS locations, a COMTECH Mobile Transceiver model MT2010/MT2011 transceiver, and a Paravan computer.” See Department of the Army, Capability Production Document for Movement Tracking System (MTS), Increment: 1, Draft Version 1.0, March 13, 2009.
14. PowerPoint Briefing, Product Manager Joint-Automatic Identification Technology, Lieutenant Colonel P. Burden, November 29, 2007.
15. DARPA ITO Sponsored Research, 2001 Project Summary, Operational CONOPS development and experimentation in support of HUMAN ID at a Distance in Reconnaissance and Surveillance applications, Chenega Technology Services Corp., n.d. (January 2002).
16. MITRE Corporation, Technology Assessment for the State of the Art Biometrics Excellence Roadmap; Volume 2 (of 3) Face, Iris, Ear, Voice, and Handwriter Recognition; v1.3, March 2009, p. 2-34.
ENCORE TASK ORDER (TO) STATEMENT OF WORK (SOW) as of 18 November 2003, Contract Number: DCA200-02-D-5014, Human Interface Security (HIS) Biometrics Solutions Integration Research Support.
The goal of this task is to develop a prototype of a CMSS that will be integrated with the Acsys Biometrics Corporation’s facial recognition system (FRS) framework to support the following capabilities:
• Support one-to-many facial identification scenarios, such as identifying people in a crowd
• Support real-time operation in identification mode for a minimum of 50,000 enrolled subjects
• Enrollment in the field (FRS client) and biometric template generation at the FRS central server
• Support for LAN, WAN, cellular wireless and web-based communication between the FRS central server and the FRS client modules to support operation in the field
• Highly portable and provides covert deployment
The proposed system will be comprised of a wearable computer module (WCM) receiving and processing video stream input from a covert camera. The user interfaces during normal field operation will be provided through microphone/earphone and a head-mounted display (HMD). A wireless PDA and/or speech recognition module will serve as the control input interface to the wearable computer. The WCM will provide wireless communications to both the FRS central server and mobile or stationary alarm annunciation/monitoring stations. The capability to import and store up to 50,000 biometric templates at the FRS client will also be provided. The user of the system will be able to acquire facial targets, identify the target subject if they exist within the local client database, and store acquired images for subsequent post analysis. The WCM and batteries will be worn on the waist and the camera components will be blended into standard sunglasses or other concealed locations on the user.
17. 2013 Program Management Updates, Special Operations Technology (SOTECH 11.4), p. 33.
18. DOD, Fiscal Year (FY) 2005 Budget Estimates, SO/LIC Advanced Development, PE 0603121D8Z, DOD, R-1 Shopping List Item No. 26, February 2004, p. 1 of 9.
19. Defense Science Board 2004 Summer Study on Transition to and from Hostilities, December 2004, pp. xvi, xvii.
20. After the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review confirmed a commitment to increase the number of special operators by a third; and the study called for even more investment in tagging, tracking, and locating (TTL); the top-level affirmation for a Manhattan-like project geared toward microminiaturization was given. See Michael Vickers, Implementing GWOT Strategy: Overcoming Interagency Problems, 15 March 2006, p. 4. SOCOM conducted a Capability Gap Analysis to determine specific hardware needs and on February 28, 2006, its commander, General Bruce Brown, approved the TTL program as the highest-ranked capability to be developed. A 2006 USSOCOM/DDR&E TTL Roadmap attempted to lay out a strategic plan and portfolio of capabilities then existing and under development.
21. 2011 SOCOM Program Management Updates, Special Operations Technology (SOTECH) 9.4, p. 28.
22. One example is the Ground SIGINT Kit, or GSK, 150 hand-built systems optimizing power, heat, and weight issued to the most expert and covert of the black collectors, each item of software-definable receivers (Nanoceptor and Picoceptor) Digital Receiver Technology (DRT) being manufactured or calibrated exactly for the signals being sought and tailored to fit.
23. William Murray, “Tagging, Tracking & Locating: TTL Systems Empower SOF to Spot and Eliminate Dangers,” Special Operations Technology (SOTECH 11-1), February 2013.
24. USSOCOM Posture Statement 2007, n.d. (February 2007), p. 21.
25. Statement Testimony of Honorable John J. Young, Jr., Director of Defense Research and Engineering, Before the United States House of Representatives, Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities; March 21, 2007.
26. SOCOM PowerPoint Briefing, Bonny Heet, SBIR Program Manager, Overview of the USSOCOM Program Executive Offices, USSOCOM/SORDAC-ST, March 20, 2013.
27. SOCOM PowerPoint Briefing; Doug Richardson, SOAL-T WSO, Continuous Clandestine Tagging, Tracking, and Locating (CTTL), September 5, 2007; obtained by the author.
28. Randy Roughton, Rise of the Drones—UAVs After 9/11: 9/11 and war on terror sparked an explosion in unmanned aerial vehicle technology, Airman magazine, October 3, 2011; http://science.dodlive.mil/2011/10/03/rise-of-the-drones-uavs-after-911/ (accessed May 2, 2013).
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Ring of Fiber
1. On May 28, 2009, the deputy secretary of defense directed the acceleration of two BACN payloads onto RQ-4A/B UAS Global Hawk Block 20 aircraft to support Joint Urgent Operational Need 336.
2. The JUON actually began as an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) in 2006 to meet the challenges associated with operating in mountainous terrain, such as limited line of sight, and was melded into the already existing BACN.
3. In November 2003, the ScanEagle drone also demonstrated communications relay with Enhanced Position Locating and Reporting System (EPLRS).
4. Maryann Lawlor, “Technology Takes Flight,” Signal Magazine (AFCEA), June 2006. See also Northrop Grumman, BACN CDMA Subsystem Test Results, June 2, 2006.
5. On June 24, 2009, the USAF awarded Northrop Grumman Defense Mission Systems Inc., of San Diego a $276.3-million cost-plus-fixed-fee urgent requirement contract for its Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) System. The contract funded fielding in three long-range Bombardier BD-700 Global Express jets and two Global Hawk RQ-4B Block 20 UAVs. It will also fund the company’s support for continuing operations of the existing BACN-equipped BD-700, which the air force deployed to the front lines in December 2008.
6. Through additional experimentation and natural gold plating, BACN was “enhanced”—a SIGINT black box and a secure data link that would allow F-22 Raptors to communicate with other platforms without compromising its stealth were added.
Air Force, Air Force Programs, Global Hawk High-Altitude Long-Endurance Unmanned Aerial System (RQ-4), January 2012, pp. 221–224; Air Force Materiel Command, Patty Welsh, “Contract award helps keep BACN airborne,” November 21, 2012. See also Idaho National Laboratory, Analyzing Options for Airborne Eme
rgency Wireless Communications, March 2008.
7. On November 3, 2011, the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) platforms were officially designated. The manned Bombardier BD-700 aircraft were designated E-11As, and the modified Global Hawk Block 20 platforms were designated EQ-4Bs.
8. CAOC crack refers to the Coalition (or Combined) Air Operations Center (the CAOC, pronounced “kay-ock”), the operational command center where air warfare is overseen.
9. General John P. Jumper, Air Force chief of staff; Space Architecture and Integration—Challenges for the Future; Speech to the 19th National Space Symposium, Colorado Springs, Colorado, April 10, 2003.
10. DOD, Quadrennial Defense Review Report, 2006, p. 45.
11. Maggie Ybarra, “USAF Unmanned Aircraft Could Benefit from Army Surveillance Capability,” Insidedefense.com, April 2, 2013.
12. “Surveillance on the Fly,” Science and Technology Review (S&TR, Livermore National Laboratory), October 2006, pp. 4–5.
13. “Wide area persistent surveillance is defined as the ability to provide surveillance over as much of the region known to be associated with a specific activity in order to increase the chance of detecting and observing the activity, identify the entity, track the entity forward in real time or backwards forensically. In most cases, the activity of interest can be identified as a transaction between locations”; PowerPoint Briefing, RRTO sponsored BAA on Persistent Surveillance Exploitation Technologies, Seeking new strategies and methodologies to leverage wide area EO and GMTI data, n.d. (2008).
14. Jack E. Huntley, “Advancing GEOINT Standards Across the NSG,” Pathfinder, January/February 2009;Tom Vanden Brook, “Spy technology caught in military turf battle,” USA TODAY, October 2, 2007; www.usatoday.com/news/military/2007-10-02-angel-fire_N.htm (accessed October 15, 2009).