Friday, November 21, 2014

A Look At How The U.S. Air Force Determines What Targets Are Attacked By U.S. Jets And Drones

Image: Wikipedia

A Look Inside a Secret US Air Force Intelligence Center -- Marcus Weisgerber, Defense One

LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. – While there might not be any American combat boots on the ground in Syria, dozens of manned and unmanned aircraft dot the skies above gathering video and other types of intelligence about the movement of Islamic State militants. The images collected by those aircraft are streamed by satellites in near real-time thousands of miles away to Langley Air Force Base in southern Virginia.

Here in a dimly lit room about the half the size of a football field, airmen — some not even old enough to legally drink alcohol — stare at computer screens interpreting people’s movements and producing intelligence reports that could ultimately be read by President Barack Obama. And without those soldiers on the ground in Syria and Iraq providing context, it’s largely up to these intelligence analysts to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys.

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My Comment: This intelligence group is busy ....

....  The 480th receives about 20 terabytes of data each day. In 2013, the wing processed 460,000 hours of full-motion video, disseminated 2.6 million images and generated 1.7 million signals intelligence reports, according to Air Force officials.

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