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Supporting the requirements of today’s data fusion and analysis systems with alternative data technology
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Jay Jarrell |
It has been said that soldiers can go weeks without food, and days without water, but only minutes without data.
The international focus on crime and terrorism has placed unprecedented demands on government agencies tasked with developing or acquiring software applications to ingest and manage massive amounts of intelligence data. These agencies have exponentially more data arising from more sources than ever before, with huge amounts of complex information gathered from a countless number of multi-INT sources, sensors and HUMINT intelligence.
Not only must this data be fused and quickly processed for actionable intelligence and decisions simultaneously, but the complexity of this information must also be reduced to provide a common operating picture shared by numerous operators and partners.
Modern data collection systems call for an advanced data processing capacity that is flexible enough to manage large amounts of national and tactical data. Unfortunately, most systems cannot handle every data-type and maintain a user-friendly dynamic at the same time. Additionally, today’s operations tempo requires analysts to cover a broader situational knowledge-base with limited experience and skill specialization.
The latest generation of net-centric operations and analyst systems must support rapid global deployments and precision engagement, provide agile combat support while substantiating real-time decisions, and offer ultimate information superiority for in-theater activities.
These new needs and challenges are supported by newer technologies, such as the data store platform offered by Objectivity, Inc., versus the more traditional relational database technologies, such as Oracle’s, which have strengths in certain areas and weaknesses in others. These weaknesses include advanced relationship analytics, data fusion and processing of distributed data.
Newer technologies, like the Objectivity platform, combine data from multiple sources and enable operators to use that information to make timely decisions. Objectivity is a supplier of database management technologies for advanced C2/C4ISR data fusion and analytic applications. The company has supported the development of several net-centric operations, including the US Air Force’s Network Centric Collaborative Targeting (NCCT) and the Air Force’s Analyst Support Architecture (ASA). Objectivity’s high performance and scalable product, Objectivity/DB, serves as a real-time scalable "data fusion" repository that monitors, analyzes, responds to and reports on all platforms and assets, such as aircraft, etc., It uniquely satisfies the data management requirements for these net-centric operations.
The NCCT integration program is part of the U.S. Navy’s Trident Warrior exercise series, involving an Expeditionary Strike Group, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army aircraft, as well as coalition aircraft. Within this program, Objectivity/DB stores and manages vast amounts of disparate information, performing data fusion from geospatial and sensor data from the NCCT sensor network while it reduces the time it takes to accurately locate targets by more than 90 percent.
The ASA integration program is part of the U.S. Navy's Trident Warrior exercise series, involving an Expeditionary Strike Group, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army aircraft, as well as coalition aircraft.
Northrop Grumman, recently received the Government Security News Homeland Security Award in the new category of “Best Data Fusion and Collaborative Analysis System” for ASA, which was built on the Objectivity/DB platform. Objectivity/DB allows rapid integration of multi-source data in both integrated air defense and maritime domain awareness environments, meeting the informational and operational needs of today’s war fighter. The U.S. Air Force is actively using ASA in the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) Operational Watch Center. Analysts at NASIC pass relevant information to tactical users in-theater. The success of ASA resulted in the Air Force’s decision to add ASA to its Electronic Systems Center (ESC) at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts.
Additionally, roadside bombs are the leading killer of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American military has turned to mathematics and social network analysis to help identify bombers and their supporters. Objectivity/DB has been optimized for advanced relationship analytics and traversal of complex distributed graph data used in social network analysis.
Objectivity/DB is used by government agencies for security and intelligence initiatives involving security analysis, cryptanalysis, social network analysis, knowledge and case management, terrorist mapping networks, geospatial data fusion plus ACINT, COMINT, ELINT, HUMINT and SIGINT analysis. Objectivity/DB supports the war fighter’s need to get answers from huge volumes of data and predict unknown events with unprecedented speed.
In conclusion, government agencies have exponentially more data arising from more sources than ever before, with huge amounts of complex information gathered from a countless number of multi-INT sources, sensors and HUMINT intelligence.
Now, newer technologies, such as the Objectivity platform, can transform data from multiple sources into actionable intelligence for the operators and their commanders.
Jay Jarrell is president and CEO of Objectivity, Inc. He can be reached at:
