It’s pitch black. You blink frantically, but still see nothing. You spin around, and all that fills your vision is a dark blanket of black. Suddenly, you hear gunfire and total chaos erupts. You’ve got to get out now. You reach out to feel for a wall or door, and touch nothing. You call out for help and get no response. Where’s your team?
And then—relief! The lights come back on. You can see a way out. Your unit pals are back by your side and, together, you quickly make your way to safety.
Our nation’s brave warfighters can’t do their job in the dark. They need information and situational awareness to succeed and survive.
The U.S. military’s Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems provide critical intelligence. Unfortunately, many of these legacy systems can be much like the first scenario—inefficient, susceptible to threats, and offering a less than complete view of the full picture. Stovepiped systems—systems that were individually engineered—produce isolated pieces of intelligence.
It’s challenging and sometimes even impossible to assess the battlefield environment and collect, analyze, and communicate critical threats. Military decision makers and operators must tap into multiple systems—each with separate logins and displays—while warfighters in the field toggle between radio systems.
