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Intelligence Leaders Eye Automation for Faster Targeting
DIA and military service leaders are prioritizing automation and interoperability to turn growing volumes of data into actionable intelligence.
The War Department and military services are leveraging automation to move intelligence to the warfighters faster, but now leaders are faced with a new challenge: turning massive volumes of data into actionable intelligence quickly enough to support operations.
“One of the most persistent challenges is how do we translate intelligence, the collection of analysis, into operational stuff,” said Greg Rykman, deputy director for global integration at the Defense Intelligence Agency and special advisor to the director, at AFCEA and INSA’s Intelligence and National Security Summit in Bethesda, Maryland, Wednesday.
The challenge is becoming more urgent as near-peer adversaries adopt emerging technologies to challenge the U.S. and its allies, Rykman said. While the United States has significant intelligence and technology advantages, increasingly sophisticated collection capabilities are producing more data that analysts and warfighters must process at speed.
Autonomy Speeds Up the Intelligence Cycle
Advances in autonomous systems are changing how intelligence is collected, processed and used, particularly as AI-enabled capabilities accelerate targeting for long-range weapons systems.
Increased autonomy speeds up target acquisition and fundamentally changes the timeline intelligence agencies must meet, Rykman said. Agencies must produce intelligence with sufficient fidelity to support increasingly fast and sophisticated targeting systems, requiring them to process and assess more information in less time.
“We have better collection, more sophisticated collection, more data available … and that’s good. But we’re struggling with that,” Rykman said.
Autonomous capabilities are likely to continue reshaping warfare, he added, requiring intelligence organizations to adapt their processes alongside the technology.
Like any advance in warfare, “it continues until something common is different or some other advancement comes along, and we’re going to have to figure out how to work in that environment,” Rykman said.
Improving Accessibility and Interoperability
Another challenge is making intelligence more accessible across systems and organizations.
While the military has established processes for managing dynamic targeting, some information remains siloed because of interoperability issues, Rykman said. The tools, algorithms and processes used to analyze intelligence data do not always work seamlessly together.
“So how do we get our arms around that … to be able to optimize it?” he said.
Solving those interoperability challenges could help the department capitalize on increasingly sophisticated collection capabilities while ensuring the resulting intelligence reaches decision-makers quickly enough to be operationally useful.
Air Force Automates Target Custody
The Air Force is prioritizing capabilities that can “establish and maintain custody of strategic global assets at speed and scale to support the long-range kill chain,” said Lt. Gen. Max Pearson, deputy chief of staff for intelligence.
The service is also focused on force modernization and readiness as it aligns its intelligence priorities with the National Defense Strategy and administration priorities, Pearson said.
As part of that effort, the Air Force is working with intelligence agencies, joint partners, the Joint Staff and the Office of the Secretary of War on a series of experiments to accelerate targeting.
Those experiments combined digital tools to create automated target custody and execute predictive sensor queuing using live sensors, Pearson said. The work represents an opportunity to advance Air Force capabilities while strengthening its support for the broader joint force.
Navy Targets Faster Intelligence Processing
The Navy is similarly working to improve how quickly it can transform data into actionable intelligence, particularly as it supports long-range targeting and the joint force.
One priority is the service’s Intelligent Fires precision-guided weapons effort and the capabilities it brings to joint operations, said Rear Adm. Mike Brookes, commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence.
Brookes said one of his biggest priorities is ensuring the Navy has the tools necessary to manage growing volumes of data and turn them into intelligence. The service is improving its targeting processes to keep pace with combat operations, strengthen long-range kill chains and “execute at a greater pace and greater scale,” he said.
The Navy also supports the joint force through maritime security, deterrence, operations across the electromagnetic spectrum and flexible power projection, Brookes said. Accomplishing those missions requires ensuring sailors have both the training and technology necessary to work with growing volumes of intelligence data.
“For the sailors, it’s making sure that they’re training appropriately. These days it’s giving them the tools that they need specifically to deal with the data that we collect, and to be able to take that data and turn that into intelligence,” Brookes said.
Army Intelligence on Target
The Army is also looking to AI and automation to accelerate targeting from the brigade and division levels through theater-level operations with the joint force.
A key priority is improving intelligence support for targeting and compressing the kill chain, said Lt. Gen. Michelle Schmidt, Army deputy chief of staff, G-2. That effort requires capabilities such as AI-enabled automated target recognition, Schmidt said.
“It’s the idea that we do need to see, we need to understand, we need to decide, we need to act much faster than any adversary that we may face,” Schmidt said.
The Army is also prioritizing intelligence support for force protection to ensure soldiers can operate and survive in contested environments. Those efforts include supporting counter-UAS operations, counter-space capabilities and defenses against ballistic missiles.
“Intel supports targeting, intel supports protection,” she said.
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