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Canadian forces seek data fusion capability
The Canadian Forces is looking to build a centre to house some of its new commands as well as a high-tech system that will allow senior officers to access as-it-happens video imagery and other information from combat zones such as Afghanistan. To accomplish that two related projects are under way. One is to build the computer systems that will fuse intelligence data and information into a package easily accessible by commanders in Ottawa, across the country and overseas. That $64-million joint information and intelligence fusion capability project will bring together large amounts of information, including video imagery, still photographs, map displays and other data as it is transmitted from various sources. In some cases, officers would be able to watch live imagery from robot aerial drones flying on missions in Afghanistan. The other project is looking at the potential construction of a new building, almost certainly in Ottawa, to house personnel from the militarys recently created operational commands as well personnel and the computer infrastructure associated with the information fusion project. Lt.-Cmdr. Robert Peck, director of the joint information and intelligence fusion capability project, said the idea is to provide a toolset for the commands to put together the mission picture. Were looking at trying to bring together data warehouses, information on friendly forces, information on enemy forces, on neutral forces, he explained in a recent interview. Were looking at trying to have a very robust picture of all the data available from disparate bunch of information systems and trying to connect a lot of different things together so the information is readily available. He said while such a capability isnt necessary tied to one location, housing the various systems in one building is being considered. Peck acknowledged that since the militarys senior command structure is in the capital city, Ottawa is a better option, a higher probability for the site for the new building. The Canadian Forces wants to have an initial fusion capability in place in two years with the system fully operational by 2011. It is expected the computer infrastructure for that capability will be in place first and that could drive the design of the new building. The military has had an intelligence fusion capability on the books for the last seven years. At one point, the project was scheduled to be put in place by 2006. But the complexity of trying to meld various sources of information together into a coherent package has proved more difficult than first thought. One source familiar with the project said Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of the defence staff, is now pushing hard to have the capability put in place as quickly as possible. The source said Hillier has been frustrated at the lack of immediate information from the battlefield in Afghanistan. The military is looking to industry to do further definition work on the fusion capability project and expects to put out a request for proposals sometime in September. Posted by: lotp 2007-06-30 |
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