[Editor’s Note: Army Mad Scientist welcomes T2COM G2 analyst, Mr. Dorsel “Flip” Boyer as today’s guest blogger. Mr. Boyer lays out how unmanned systems can feed massive amounts of data into the intelligence function and present challenges to current data processing. Recently, Ukrainian FPV drone teams have been relying on real-time commercial satellite images for targeting, accelerating the kill chain by 90%. Mr. Boyer goes into how drone feeds themselves contribute to this and change our understanding of PED and ISR functions. — Read on!]
The Intelligence Warfighting Function has traditionally operated on a linear assumption: exquisite assets collect information, human analysts process it through labor-intensive Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (PED) pipelines, and eventually, this refined product provides intelligence support to targeting. The proliferation of unmanned systems (UxS) as both sensors and effectors challenge the existing intelligence cycle through both the scale of data and the ability to apply mass and precision to rapidly emerging targets.
Observations from battlefields in both Ukraine and the Middle East highlight the challenges that linking sensors and effectors into a single system pose to the traditional 24- 72 hour targeting cycle for deliberate targeting identified in Joint Publication 3-60 (20 September 2024). Terabytes of full-motion video and telemetry flooding in from the tactical edge and exponential advances in the proliferation and capability of UxS as sensors further complicate the existing PED architecture. The bottleneck that sensor proliferation was foreseeable and efforts like Project Maven exist to leverage AI and machine learning to prevent intelligence support to targeting from being outpaced. Work within the maneuver, fires and protection communities to define the expanding role of UxS beyond traditional aviation or sensor platforms must be met to enable rapid integration of unprecedented volumes of data in company and battalion headquarters. We are witnessing a crisis in intelligence processing that demands we redefine “Drone Warfare” as “Data Warfare” that requires the implementation of AI powered solutions at the tactical edge.
The Sensor Mesh: Bypassing the Traditional PED Bottleneck
In legacy ISR-T (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Targeting) constructs, a few high-value, low-density platforms fed data into centralized nodes. The sheer volume of commercially available and military-grade UxS flips this model. Today, every attritable quadcopter and fixed-wing drone launched into the battlespace is a data node. These platforms create a resilient and saturated sensor mesh that challenges the very concept of centralized PED.
Figure 1: Legacy ISR-T infrastructure
To successfully exploit this volume of data this data exploitation must move to the forward tactical edge – allowing commanders at the all echelons to receive intelligible data from subordinates while maximizing the effectiveness of increasingly capable organic assets. The true lethality of modern UxS lies in their ability to bypass traditional intelligence bottlenecks, using edge computing and AI to process data locally and feed high-fidelity, real-time targeting telemetry directly into a decentralized command and control networks. Combining AI and edge computing effectively makes the automated data architecture the weapon system.
Ukraine has transitioned to a drone (and therefore data) centric force. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have demonstrated not only the emergent potential of semi-autonomous UxS but innovative app-based intelligence-targeting programs, and traditional intelligence collection architecture. To assist commanders, intelligence analysts, and targeteers with data management and battlefield visualization Ukraine has developed a battlefield management system called “Delta”.
“Delta” is a more than an app-based battlefield visualization system. “Delta” operates as a comprehensive joint command and control system incorporating battlefield visualization, target synchronization, blue force tracking system, machine enabled PED triage, and unmanned systems control. Beyond a user interface combines intelligence and operational management applications that can be reliably distributed to the tactical edge the system relies on regional situational awareness centers that provide technical and intelligence support and high-speed connections. The maturation of the “Delta” system combines machine assisted decision making aids with more proven concepts.
The Effector Revolution: Intelligence Direct to Strike
Military planners have historically faced the difficult decision; they could employ mass (barrages of unguided artillery) or precision (expensive, laser-guided munitions requiring extensive intelligence support). The integration of UxS as effectors means that cheap air or land drones become loitering munitions. Recent Ukrainian use of AI-enabled machine-targeted Hornet UAVs Russian logistics further demonstrates the operational utility of semi-autonomous systems highlights the trend towards efficiently coupling the intelligence sensor directly to the kinetic effector generating.
A swarm of low-cost, expendable UxS can saturate an adversary’s defenses while simultaneously identifying, validating, and engaging individual targets with pinpoint accuracy. This rapid sensor-to-shooter loop relies on robust data links and machine-speed intelligence processing to execute strikes at a scale previously unattainable.
Echoes of the 1990s: The RMA Democratized
The last time intelligence and targeting shifted so seismically was the 1990s Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). The Gulf War demonstrated the devastating potential of precision-guided munitions, stealth, and centralized information dominance. The 1990s RMA promised a sterile battlefield where “if you can see it, you can kill it” -if- you had both the exquisite intelligence apparatus to sense and expensive precision weapon to effect the target.
The emerging paradigm of “Data Warfare” is the democratization and hyper-acceleration of the trends that led to the 1990s RMA. What was once the exclusive domain of national intelligence agencies and exquisite strike fighters has been compressed into attritable, ubiquitous systems operating at the tactical edge.
The Intelligence Imperative
As the Department of War and the services plan and program means towards maintaining America’s definitive warfighting edge countering the drone threat and maximizing our own UxS employment—is not an aviation, maneuver, or fires challenge; it is fundamentally an intelligence and data challenge. The victor in the next major conflict will not be the force with the most drones, but the force that can successfully collapse the PED cycle, harvest battlefield data at speed, and transition that intelligence into precise, massed targeting. The platforms are expendable. Although the proliferation of UxS will increase lethality the data architecture that turns that information into targetable intelligence is the center of gravity.
If you enjoyed this post, check out the T2COM G-2’s Operational Environment Enterprise web page, brimming with authoritative information on the Operational Environment and how our adversaries fight.
About the Author: Mr. Boyer is an experienced intelligence and defense policy professional with 23 years of experience in the field as both a uniformed service member and defense industry partner. He currently works as a threat environment analyst for the United States Army Transformation and Training Command (T2COM). His focus has been the Black Sea and its littoral and has worked directly in the field since 2015 supporting United States European Command, United States Special Operations Command, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Mr. Boyer has published several studies for T2COM, the U.S. Army Center for Lessons Learned, and currently supports the T2COM G-2 Wargaming Team.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of War, Department of the Army, or the U.S. Army Transformation and Training Command (T2COM).
