THERESA HITCHENS
AUSA 2023 — Having just published an updated intelligence doctrine to reflect its focus on future multi-domain operations, the Army is now working on plans to modernization its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) architecture — pursuing everything from commercial satellite data to quantum computing for speeding analysis, according to senior officials.
Lt. Gen. Laura Potter, Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence, said the new “Army Field Manual FM 2.0, Intelligence” [PDF] published today “is nested” in its multi-domain operations doctrine, FM 3.0, published last October.
“It is where we’re headed for 2030, and then [Army] Futures Command is already looking at what must the Army do out to 2040. You’ll see that we’re doing joint and multinational operations, and we’re fighting at every echelon of combat power,” she told the annual Association of the United States Army (AUSA) conference today. “So delivering an intel enterprise that can support warfighters at echelon is what you’re going to read about in 2.0.”
As for ISR modernization efforts, Potter explained that the Army’s intelligence corps is working across “three layers: the space layer, taking advantage of government and commercial space based resources; an aerial layer that’s a mix of manned HADES [High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System] aircraft and unmanned platforms; and then a terrestrial layer that has terrestrial layer sensing at the brigade level and echelons above brigade.”
HADES will be a modernized spy plane, designed to replace the RC-12 Guardrail, which the service hopes to field in the 2028 timeframe.
Andrew Evans, director of the Army’s ISR Task Force, said the modernization plans are broken down in three “lines of effort” aimed at “fighting intelligence,” including the pursuit of “advanced deep sensing technology” to enable the service’s high-priority “long-range precision fires” capabilities.
Evans told the AUSA conference that the Army is by no means looking for decades-old tech developed to fight the Global War on Terror “that somebody slaps a new label on and resells to the military.” Instead, he stressed, the service is focused on “transformational” deep sensing technologies such as quantum computing, “quantum antenna technology” and, in particular, “autonomy.”
“We’re talking about swarming using autonomy as fast as we can and proliferating it as wide as we can. Autonomy is gonna be key in the future,” Evans said. “We’re also talking about how we manage all of the data, because that’s going to be a tall order.”
Evans further noted that one of the questions with which the ISR Task Force is grappling with regard to sensing is how best to “leverage the vast proliferation of commercial satellite providers that are now going up on orbit. … That’s going to become very important. So, it’s a big question for us.”
While Evans did not go into details, the issue on the table is if and when when the Army will directly purchase ISR data and analysis from commercial satellite vendors, go through the Space Force’s Commercial Space Office, which itself if planning to acquire commercial ISR for dissemination to US military commanders in the field, or continue to rely on the traditional process of getting such data and analysis through the Intelligence Community.
For at least two years, the Army has been negotiating with Intelligence Community and the Space Force on the issue of how to ensure ISR data makes its way to ground operators in a timely manner.
Meanwhile, the Space Force also has been working with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to sort out their respective roles in acquiring ISR products from commercial satellite operators.
The NRO is responsible for buying commercial ISR satellite data; NGA is charged with prioritizing the dissemination of intelligence gleaned from remote sensing satellites and acquiring commercial ISR analysis.
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