US Air Force,
Arlington VA: Over the next decade, the Air Force will continue to use information technology to leverage the capability of its people and weapons systems. During a conference here June 13, Lt. Gen. Michael W. Peterson, Air Force chief of warfighting integration and chief information officer, told members of the civilian information technology industry about the Air Force's success in employment of IT and its plans for the future.
General Peterson said the Air Force already had stealthy, precise weapons systems and the best Airmen in the world, but by adding IT to that mix, the service was able to make its assets more efficient and powerful. The concept of using IT to reap greater benefits from Air Force weapons and people is warfighting integration.
One example of warfighting integration is the link between ground troops and airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms such as the MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle.
“Today, (a) Soldier, Marine or an Airman on the ground can look at a terminal and watch what a Predator is observing from overhead,” General Peterson said. “(They) can also talk to an AC-130 gunship. The gunship can see what is happening on the Predator. Before it even arrives on scene, the gunship has situational awareness. This has changed things dramatically.”
In the past, information did not move seamlessly between sensor and operator, or computer to computer. Data had to be moved on paper or by telephone, and then keyed back into a new system — a process informally referred to as “thumping.” That made for inefficiencies and inaccuracies, the general said.
The Air Force needed to find ways to move that data machine to machine, and take the human element out of the picture wherever possible. The general said the Air Force cannot afford to wait for data to be “thumped” into a system any longer.
“It takes too long to do that,” he said. “The moment a signals intelligence unit or sensor picks up information that something is operating in the area, it needs to be passed to the next step in the process. You have to take it to the next level.”
An example of the next level is linking ground crews to Predator aircraft and then taking the same information and linking it to warplanning and targeting systems.
“We may ask a Predator to go look at hide sites. Perhaps, we have identified potential hide sites so we know where to look,” he said.
“When we find it, it
