Solving Problems with ISR Data for the Warfighter

As the nation's adversaries develop ever-more-sophisticated cyber and weapon capabilities, information dominance becomes increasingly essential. Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) data is critical to our national defense. The Department of Defense (DOD) invests heavily in information technology to stay ahead of increasing threats, including technologies to support ISR missions.

But what is the current state of ISR data and its use at the tactical edge of the battlefield? To find out, Booz Allen partnered with the Government Business Council to conduct a survey. Based on responses from more than 300 senior active duty and civilian members of the DOD and intelligence agencies, the results show that the defense community experiences critical challenges managing ISR data. Here are some of the key takeaways.

Problem 1. Siloed data

When asked about the top factor challenging their organization’s ability to effectively collect, disseminate, and analyze information, fully 45% of survey respondents identified siloed data as the number one hurdle.

When asked if their organization effectively integrates disparate data sources to support decision making in the field:

• 23% of respondents strongly or somewhat disagreed
• 30% neither agreed nor disagreed

Solution: The problem of data siloing, and thus inaccessibility, is a legacy of hardware-centric procurement programs and data infrastructures. New programs like Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) will help address this problem by emphasizing open architectures at all levels and across all domains.

Problem 2. Deluge of data

Military analysts are drowning in data. By the time analysts identify, analyze, and distribute relevant information to decision makers, it’s often obsolete.

More than half of survey respondents felt that their organizations were either not at all, somewhat, or only moderately effective at leveraging data for the warfighter. The number of military analysts dedicated to monitoring incoming data has failed to keep pace with evolving collection technologies and ever-increasing volumes of information.

Solution: Advanced artificial intelligence can provide accurate intelligence data faster, augmenting limited staff and adding benefits of human-machine teaming such as fewer errors, while enabling staff to instead focus on higher value work.

Problem 3. Data management

With so much data coming in, how can it be properly managed? Only 29% of respondents felt that available information reaches the appropriate analyst more than 75% of the time, and a full 33% didn’t know if available information reaches those who need it.

When asked if their organization has a system in place for tagging data:

• 30% of survey respondents said yes
• 14% said no
• 56% didn’t know

Moreover, 35% of respondents were not at all familiar with the role metadata can play in supporting actionable intelligence.

When asked, “Within your organization, do you believe the warfighter spends more time looking for the right data or using the right data?”, 65% of active-duty respondents and 43% of all respondents chose “looking for the data.”

Solution: DOD needs to invest in data management tools such as automation, data tagging, and analysis tools to elevate ISR mission success and enable staff to do more effective analysis to support mission success.

Problem 4. Data transmission

Fully 43% of respondents listed bandwidth limitations as the main challenge to their organization’s collection, dissemination, and analysis capabilities, making it the second-leading challenge after siloed data.

Solution: Although the military can increase bandwidth, it’s unlikely to keep pace with exponential data growth. A promising solution lies in ISR edge processing, which flips the traditional approach of centralized data processing by using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) on edge-based sensors and platforms to process incoming raw data. Instead of moving data to the algorithms, the algorithms are moved to the data.

ISR processing at the edge would allow the U.S. military to harness the data it collects, while enabling analysts and warfighters to use the data more efficiently to support decision making. More effective ISR is critical to ensuring overmatch against technically sophisticated near-peers—and new technologies place the essential capabilities within reach.

For more information, read the full research report.