Ok, this is a plea to the powers that be. If civilian contractors are the second largest force that is assisting in this war with 133,196 (2007 CENTCOM Census) +/- contractors out there, why do we not have access to a network? This TIGR system, or basically Myspace for the military is an awesome idea. But it completely ignores the input from thousands of us security contractors overseas that actually have some good intel on the various areas.
Or if we cannot be involved with TIGR, then set up a separate system for us? It makes sense to me, and in many ways, we all are communicating on various forms of social networks. Forums for one, has been a huge deal for uniting contractors and passing down information. But forums are also poorly organized. Myspace and Facebook are popular too, but yet again, they are not organized to suite the main goal of enhancing the war effort. Nor are these outlets necessarily secure. So really, OPSEC and PERSEC is left to the whims of those posters or the moderators of forums.
I say an easy solution to all of this, is to create a secure TIGR type system for contractors, that could be monitored by someone in the proposed Advisory Corps that John Nagl proposed. Or just find a relevant office, in the sea of departments in the DOD or DOS that could babysit something like this.
I would also make this new contractor network accessible to the military if they so wish. The information passed down on this site could prove to be vital to the overall war effort. And like I said, there are thousands of us working in the war zone as we speak. We should be taking advantage of this resource, and taping into it’s potential.
And for the companies out there that are reading this, imagine the organizational learning you could obtain from something like this? Real feedback from contractors throughout the entire spectrum of contracts. You could find out what tents this company uses and why, or what weapons that contractor liked and why. Not to mention learning about the best industry practices, area by area, and contract by contract.
Of course, the biggest advantage of this type of social network is the route intelligence. More contractors have died from IED’s and EFP’s than anything else. Imagine if all the hundreds of convoys were reporting daily on this site, exactly what problems they came across? Hell, they could set up a Twitter Feed, and convoy commanders would get the reports streamed into their mobile device. The best would be to have a Panasonic Tough book set up in the truck, and connected wirelessly or through satellite, and being able to get feeds about the changing battlefield conditions.
For that matter, we should also have our own Blue Force Tracker system.(I will not talk about what we use now-OPSEC) If we had assigned Advisors to each convoy or remote site operation, then these individuals could be tasked with watching over how the Blue Force Tracker is used by us. In the past, the civilian industry just hasn’t had the kind of access to that equipment because of clearance reasons and a perception that we would not understand it or be irresponsible with it. To have an assigned Advisor with the companies would side step this issue.
Either way, I would like to see a social networking site for civilian military, because I think it would save lives and enhance the war effort. I don’t think an open source social network site, like Ning or WordPress would be sufficient. Obviously the DARPA software works and is in heavy use, and I think it is time the DOD set up something for us too. –Head Jundi
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How Defense Research Is Making Troops More Effective in Wartime
By Walter Pincus
Monday, May 12, 2008; A17
When Army patrol leaders in Iraq prepare to go out on missions in Baghdad, their last stop at headquarters is a computerized map on which they outline the area where they will operate. Then they watch as icons emerge, showing, in grim detail, the lurking dangers.
By clicking on those, they can bring up not only sites of past hostile action but also photos and background on local leaders — some to see and others to avoid — videos of hostile and safe places, and reports from previous patrols, says Brian Slaughter, a retired Army first lieutenant who served as an armored platoon leader in Iraq in 2004. Slaughter took part in developing the computerized Tactical Ground Reporting System (TIGR).
Before TIGR, patrol leaders had only intelligence passed down from higher commands, primarily the locations of previous attacks. “Soldiers love it,” Slaughter said. “TIGR picks up everything. Now they have their own tool at company level that pulls up a wealth of information that helps determine their safest route.”
When the troops return from patrols, they feed information back into the system, adding to the data available to the next patrol leader, he said.
Mari Maeda, a project manager for TIGR, said the system also allows departing units to transfer tactical information to their replacements. The changeover to new groups in the past required PowerPoint files, spreadsheets and many bound volumes of data, she said.
“Now, with TIGR, they can do a virtual tour of the neighborhoods,” Maeda said, and quickly pass along “15 months of knowledge.”
The TIGR software package is part of a networking technology developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that about 2,000 patrol leaders in Iraq are now using.
DARPA’s proposed $3.3 billion budget for fiscal 2009, now before Congress, is the largest in its history. Almost all DARPA projects are long-range efforts, and those that come to fruition often are not used by the military until years later. But some research initiated well before the Iraq war began was designed to be used in just the type of urban conflict that has emerged in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities.
The Advanced Soldier Sensor Information System and Technology (ASSIST) networking program was outlined by DARPA’s director, Tony Tether, in March for a House Armed Services subcommittee. Troops in Iraq also have been given a computerized language translation system, called GALE, which converts Arabic media reports, both print and electronic, into English “and alerts the warfighter to events of interest and other potentially mission-critical information,” Tether said.
Because there are not enough translators in Iraq for each patrol or checkpoint, Tether told the House subcommittee, his agency is at work on another system, called TransTac, which will provide “on-the-spot speech translation.” It will convert spoken Arabic into English and vice versa, Tether said, making it “indispensable for our troops as they interact with the local population and coalition partners.”
DARPA also developed the Wasp, a small unmanned aerial vehicle that weighs two-thirds of a pound, can be carried in a backpack and can fly reconnaissance missions for as long as two hours. Its sensors provide imagery to small military units on the ground, operating in urban areas.
The operator throws the battery-powered device into the air after the propeller is spinning and controls it with a hand-held device that has a seven-inch color screen. It provides real-time pictures for U.S. Marine units, which have been testing it since last October. Hundreds are now in use in Iraq.
Another DARPA gadget tested successfully last year and now deployed with troops is Radar Scope, which allows U.S. troops to peer through concrete walls to determine whether someone is hiding inside a building. Teams pursuing enemy forces into structures are using the Radar Scope, which weighs less than 1.5 pounds and works on AA batteries.
Additional sensors are under development, including a radar called Fopen, which last year was successful in penetrating heavy tree foliage and locating vehicles and enemy fighters in Iraq. After it is placed inside a Black Hawk helicopter, “operators onboard the aircraft could detect people walking under foliage in and around concealed encampments,” Tether said.
National security and intelligence reporter Walter Pincus pores over the speeches, reports, transcripts and other documents that flood Washington and every week uncovers the fine print that rarely makes headlines — but should. If you have any items that fit the bill, please send them to fineprint@washpost.com.
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Advanced Soldier Sensor Information System and Technology (ASSIST)
Program Manager: Dr. Mari Maeda
TIGR (Tactical Ground Reporting) System:
TIGR is a multimedia reporting system for soldiers at the patrol level, allowing users to collect and share information to improve situational awareness and to facilitate collaboration and information analysis among junior officers. With its geo-spatial user interface, TIGR is particularly suited to counterinsurgency operations and enables collection and dissemination of fine-grained intelligence on people, places, and insurgent activity. Being focused on users at Company level and below, TIGR complements existing reporting systems that focus on the needs of users at Battalion or Brigade level and above.
TIGR was developed by DARPA under an extremely aggressive development schedule. The system was first introduced to users during the pre-deployment training exercise at Fort Hood in the spring of 2006. The system is currently in experimental use in Iraq.
TIGR’s graphical, map-referenced user interface is highly intuitive, and allows multimedia data such as voice recordings, digital photos, GPS tracks to be easily collected and searched. The system also uses a state-of-the-art data distribution architecture so as to minimize load on the tactical networks, even while allowing digital imagery and other multimedia data to be rapidly exchanged.
TIGR provides the following capabilities:
* TIGR enhances local knowledge – Local knowledge is hard-won and is critical to effective operations. TIGR helps ground soldiers collect information on key infrastructure, landmarks and terrain. Photos of key locations can be captured into TIGR, geo-referenced, and displayed as map overlays. Such data also serve as a navigation aid in the land where there are no street names or numbers. Overlays of routes, critical infrastructure, tribal areas and ethnic maps, recent attacks and recent changes in the terrain are all used to enhance soldier knowledge. TIGR is also used to capture and share information on human terrain. Meetings with religious leaders, encounters with local villagers or business owners can be recorded and shared in TIGR.
* TIGR tracks dynamic changes – The data in TIGR are dynamic and easily updated. While infrastructure is usually viewed as static, the reality is that battlefield terrain and infrastructure is dynamic – new structures appear, bridges are destroyed, new obstacles appear along roads. TIGR manages this dynamic tactical landscape using before/after photos and updated imagery to provide the most up-to-date views of the battlespace.
* TIGR assists the unit rotation process. During the regular RIP-TOA (Relief in Place – Transfer of Authority) process, TIGR can be used to transfer the key historical and contextual information to the new unit rotating into the Area of Operation. Instead of reviewing a stack of Powerpoint or Word files, new units can start the rotation process by reviewing past and ongoing activities in the areas of interest.
Link To DARPA Site