DARPA Launches Network Challenge Competition

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

Nov. 30, 2009 - The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will take the Internet technology it helped create 40 years ago a step farther this weekend with a contest aimed at bringing people together to solve tough problems. And the agency has sweetened the "DARPA Network Challenge" with a $40,000 cash prize.

The competition kicks off Dec. 5 at 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, when DARPA will display 10 8-foot, red weather balloons at undisclosed, publicly accessible sites around the continental United States. The balloons will remain at their locations throughout the day, until sunset.

The first person to identify the precise latitudes and longitudes of all 10 balloons will win the kitty.

Norman Whitaker, deputy director of DARPA's transformational convergence technology office, conceded that it would be nearly impossible for any one person to pinpoint every balloon within the designated timeframe. But if the competitors worked together as teams – using social networking forums made possible through the Internet – it is possible, he said.

"Nobody knows where the balloons are," Whitaker said. "But we will give people a little more than a week to contact their friends and talk to other people and scheme and plan and wheedle and deedle and figure out how they can get the information for the balloons they did not see themselves, and be the first to send the answers in to DARPA."

Whitaker admits that the challenge is "tough, really tough," but said he's optimistic that at least one contestant will be able to solve it.

How long that will take is anyone's guess. "If someone does it in the first five minutes, we are prepared to announce it right then," he said.

On the other hand, if no one has yet identified all 10 weather balloons after a week, DARPA is prepared to reward any contestant who pinpoints at least half of them. "If the most anybody got was five, we would consider that a win and award the prize," Whitaker said.

That's because DARPA's Network Challenge isn't out to identify the answers, but rather, how competitors arrive at them. "We are not interested in the balloons. We already know where those are," Whitaker said. "It's the techniques people use to solve the challenge we're focused on. We have people who are going to be actively watching from the sidelines to see how this plays out."

Contestants could employ several methods to entice supporters, Whitaker said. For example, he said, they could use a Web site to offer a portion of the prize money to anyone who contributes information about the balloons' locations. Contestants also could work with a charity, he continued, and donate winnings to its cause. Asking for help through Facebook, I-phone or other Web-based applications might also be feasible, he said.

The effort, he said, will give insight into the role the Internet and social networking can play in promoting team-building, collaboration and communication needed to solve broad, time-critical, real-life problems.

It's not yet known exactly how that information might be used, Whitaker said, but that's never been a roadblock for the Defense Department's high-tech research agency. "We're DARPA," he said. "We like to do things that are really out of the box."

That's how DARPA researchers approached their work 40 years ago, Whitaker said, by scratching their heads and wondering what benefit might come from hooking computers together to form the "ARPANet" – today's Internet.

Curiosity and imagination still serves to drive DARPA efforts, he said.

For example, DARPA started the Grand Challenge in 2004 to promote the development of autonomous robotic vehicle technology. Participating teams – many representing nontraditional sources of ideas and talent -- designed, built and remotely piloted unmanned ground vehicles that raced the clock while traversing rugged desert terrain.

Whitaker, who led the most recent Grand Challenge, said the DARPA Network Challenge will tap into the same fresh thinking that led to the Internet revolution.

"Future innovation depends on the upcoming generation of technologists who are discovering new, collaborative ways to approach problems that were not dreamt of 40 years ago," he said.

Registration for the DARPA Network Challenge opened last week, and details and application procedures are posted on the DARPA Web site.

Global Positioning Systems Improve Helicopter Safety

By Ian Graham
Special to American Forces Press Service

Nov. 30, 2009 - Global positioning system technology is being applied to older rotary-wing aircraft to help save lives, a senior helicopter pilot based at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., said. Air Force Col. Peter Mapes and other pilots at Andrews will install and test advanced GPS units, designed originally for airplanes, in some of the 316th Wing, 1st Helicopter Squadron's UH-1N "Huey" helicopters.

"This is game-changing technology because it directly addresses the leading cause of loss of life in this type of aeronautical vehicle," Mapes said.

The Defense Safety Oversight Council sponsored the test as part of efforts to reduce helicopter mishaps. From 1985 to 2005, 917 non-combat mishaps occurred, resulting in death, injury, damage exceeding $200,000, and the loss of aircraft.

Most helicopter fatalities are caused by impact with terrain – unseen mountains, trees or other obstructions -- known as controlled flight into terrain or CFIT. Because the vehicles are generally moving at high speed during such collisions, more than 90 percent of passengers and crew exposed to these events are injured or killed.

The GPS units installed in the Hueys help prevent- CFITs by displaying maps of potential obstructions at a certain elevation.

"This device has a global terrain database and will warn you of any potential collision," Mapes said. "It also has an obstruction database for North America, Central America and Western Europe that will warn about towers if you're in those areas."

The new GPS systems, he explained, turn each helicopter into a sort of "mini radar station." In addition to providing data on obstructions and terrain, it also tracks weather patterns – including lightning strikes, wind flow and rain – and other aircraft in the area.

Unexpectedly bad weather is the second leading non-human factor responsible for Army helicopter mishaps, and the leading non-human factor causing fatalities.

But, by using the new equipment, officials say, a pilot can essentially fly "blind" using the GPS and weather data to make flight plans, observe potential obstructions and even land the aircraft with minimal visibility.

The unit, a GNS-530AWT produced by Garmin, also gives the helicopters radio communication and navigation requirements, making them easy to deploy worldwide.

(Ian Graham is a writer for the Defense Media Activity's Emerging Media Directorate.)

Public Safety Technology in the News

Desert Hot Springs Police to Install Cameras in Public Places
The Desert Sun, (11/16/2009), Kate McGinty

Desert Hot Springs, Calif., has installed a network of public surveillance cameras in public places (including city parks) and in squad cars. The network can be monitored by dispatchers and officers over a secure outdoor wireless network. Desert Springs Police Chief Pat Williams said this is the first system in the country to use this mobile monitoring application. The public surveillance cameras will be monitored live in the event of a call to check a specific site; they can also be passively monitored by reviewing tapes after an incident. The squad cameras will be continuously monitored through a live streaming function. Officers will be able to tune into each other other’s dash cams in the event they are called on to provide backup. Initial installation includes 30 cameras but the network has the potential to expand to 150 units.
www.mydesert.com/article/20091116/NEWS01/911160307/1006/news01/Desert-Hot-Springs-police-to-install-30-cameras-in-public-places-16-squad-cars

Lansing to Launch New Text-Messaging Alert Service
LansingStateJournal.com, (11/16/2009), Ryan Loew

Lansing, Mich., plans a Dec. 14, 2009 launch for a new community information text-messaging service that will deliver timely information about emergencies and other events. Users will receive texts through their individual plans and will sign up through Nixle (www.nixle.com), which provides free secure texting services to public entities and other organizations nationwide. The city will send messages that include details on emergency situations and what actions, citizens should take. Lansing will also use the service to provide other public service announcements, such as information about snow plowing. Users can decide which classes of alerts they will receive.
www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20091116/NEWS01/911160336/1002/NEWS01

New System Locates 911 Cell Phone Calls
Kilgore News Herald, (11/18/2009)

The Wireless Phase II (WP2) network recently launched in several East Texas counties and cities sends emergency dispatchers the latitude and longitude of someone making a call from a cellular telephone. Under the system, cellular providers give caller location to public safety answering point (PSAP) dispatchers with the actual location of a caller (within distances mandated by the Federal Communications Commission). Previously, the companies could only identify the tower location the call came from and the call back number. The East Texas Council of Governments (ETCOG) launched deployment and testing of WP2 in December 2008, with testing completed in August 2009. Participating PSAPs include police departments in Canton, Carthage, Gladewater, Jacksonville, Palestine, Mineola and White Oak and sheriff ’s offices in Anderson, Camp, Cherokee, Gregg, Marion, Panola, Rains, Upshur, Van Zandt and Wood counties.
www.kilgorenewsherald.com/news/2009-11-18/Front_Page/New_system_locates_911_cell_phone_calls.html

Smuggled Cell Phones Pose Prison Problems
ABC7News.Com, (11/17/2009), Vic Lee

The California Penal System recently added a second cell-phone sniffing dog to a pilot program being run at Solano State Prison. Drako, an 18-month-old Belgian Malinois, is undergoing training as part of the state’s effort to stop the smuggling of cell phone to inmates. In 2008, more than 800 cell phones made their way into the medium-security facility in venues as varied as body cavities and cakes. It takes approximately eight weeks to train a dog to detect the odor that is specific to cell phones.
abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/assignment_7&id=7124324

Warning Crooks: Bucks County, Pa., Has Your Number
GCN, (11/20/2009), Joab Jackson

In Bucks County, Pa., seven police departments have begun to use software that provides information-sharing capability among their officers. Cody Systems’ Collaborative Object-Based Regional Access (COBRA) system has been donated to all departments in the county at no cost in honor of a police officer who was killed in the line of duty. Patrol officers can access COBRA through their laptop computers, searching on persons, incidents and vehicles in any Bucks County district. Information entered into one jurisdiction’s system can be accessed by other jurisdictions within minutes. The system was donated in memory of Newtown Borough police officer Brian Gregg, killed in 2005 by a man with a history of violent behavior.
gcn.com/articles/2009/11/19/bristol-police.aspx

Biometrics Used in Gwinnett to Identify Illegal Immigrants
Talk Gwinnett & the Gwinnett Gazette, (11/17/2009)

Law enforcement agencies in Gwinnett, Clayton and DeKalb counties in Georgia have joined a U.S. Department of Justice/U.S. Department of Homeland Security initiative, Secure Communities, which is administered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). When a participating agency arrests an individual, Secure Communities can determine whether that individual is a criminal alien and take appropriate action. Previously, the Georgia agencies checked arrestees’ fingerprints against a system maintained by the FBI. Now, fingerprint information will be checked against both the FBI system and DHS immigration records. A match will trigger an ICE evaluation. Top priority is given to individuals with prior convictions for major offenses.
www.talkgwinnett.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=978&Itemid=1

Beaumont Police Will Be Reading Your License Plates
12News, (11/21/2009), David Ingram

The Beaumont (Texas) Police Department recently began using a new automated license plate recognition system that uses cameras mounted on patrol cars to read license plate numbers of nearby vehicles, scanning them against databases of cars that have been reported stolen. The department has already recovered eight stolen vehicles using the system, funded through a grant from the Texas Auto Burglary and Theft Prevention Authority.
www.kbmt12.com/news/local/70709817.html

Montco Emergency Call Info Available in Real Time
Pottstown Mercury, (11/24/2009), Keith Phucas

Montgomery County, Pa., residents can log onto the county Department of Public Safety’s Web site and obtain near real-time data about emergency calls via a live Web-based interface with the emergency computer aided dispatch system. Located at http://dps.montcopa.org/webcad, the site, which is the first of its kind in the nation, provides information on fires, medical emergencies and traffic-related incidents 24/7. Police calls are not included to help ensure officer safety and full residential addresses are not provided, only block numbers. The site offers integrated mapping capability, features for Web-enabled mobile phones and links to live audio streaming from emergency radio channels.
www.pottstownmercury.com/articles/2009/11/24/news/srv0000006908540.txt

Deptford Police Get High-Tech License Plate Scanner
Philly.com, (11/24/2009), Barbara Boyer

The Deptford (Pa.) Police Department has used an $18,000 U.S. Department of Homeland Security grant to purchase a new license-plate recognition system that will scan thousands of plates every day. The system then runs the license plate numbers through several databases and alerts officers if a vehicle has been reported stolen or if its owner is wanted under an outstanding warrant. Deptford becomes the sixth Gloucester County department to implement the system. On the first day the system went into use, it helped lead to the arrest of two alleged car thieves. One of the men faced outstanding warrants in three states on drugs, assault and weapons charges. Other arrests followed in the first two weeks of use.
www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20091124_Deptford_police_get_high-tech_license_plate_scanner.html

High-Tech ‘Ears’ Listen for Shots
New York Times, (11/20/2009), Cara Buckley

ShotSpotter, a gunshot tracking system that has been adopted by more than 45 jurisdictions nationwide, has recently been deployed in areas of Westchester and Nassau counties in New York and suburban New York City areas in New Jersey and New Haven. The system has had various successes, including leading New Haven police to a women with a smoking gun still in her hand. In Nassau County, the system allowed police to locate a wounded victim and transport the individual to a hospital in the absence of a citizen 911 call. Police officials also hope the system will deter would-be shooters. ShotSpotter uses microphones to transmit the sound of a gunshot to a police department computer and use wireless sensors to triangulate the location of the noises. ShotSpotter is guaranteed to locate a shot within 80 feet of where it was fired.
www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/nyregion/22shot.html?_r=1

Video Teleconferences Keep Soldiers Communicating

By Army Sgt. Andy Mehler
Special to American Forces Press Service

Nov. 24, 2009 - Dependable communication is essential for any successful organization, and for a deployed military unit, that holds all the more true. Keeping communications dependable here falls in part to Army Master Sgt. Thomas Kemble and Army 1st Lt. Francis Conroy of the Pennsylvania National Guard's Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 28th Combat Aviation Brigade.

Kemble and Conroy work in the "S6" shop, which is responsible for most types of communication used by the 28th, including computer, telephone and radio. They also are responsible for ensuring video teleconferences are reliable, secure and available as needed.

The brigade's units use video teleconferences to communicate within Iraq and with leadership back home in Pennsylvania, Kemble said.

Kemble said he sets up his video conferences using a computer, a large monitor, a webcam and microphones, and the group he plans to link with must have the same setup on their end.

"The drawback is limited bandwidth, so we are routed through special communication hubs," he said. "We hook into the hub, which then hooks us into a conference."

Hubs in Iraq are located in Baghdad and Basra.

"We are in a location that does not have commercial Internet support, so we set up our own backbone to access commercial Internet," Kemble said.

The soldiers use a combination of military and civilian support for their mission, he said. Mission-related communications are done on a secure network, and communications not related to the mission, such as morale events, are done on nonsecure networks.

"We've set up conferences here on Adder for [Multinational Division South] to hook up with the aviation brigade and other commands," Conroy said. AT&T has the contract for nonsecure broadcasts, and is used as the hub for communications back home, the Springfield, Pa., resident added.

Kemble and Conroy set up a conference with a family readiness group's Halloween party for unit families. The children had their costumes on, and they could talk with and see their parents and loved ones here. Also, with technical support from St. Francis University on Oct. 12, Kemble set up an opportunity here for soldiers to participate. The event gave older veterans some interaction with today's soldiers and allowed them a glimpse of daily life and duty in Iraq.

Aside from running conferences, Kemble is the main communication security custodian, which means he ensures all electronic communications are secure for transmission. Conroy also works with the supply shop to order communication equipment and issues the brigades mobile and satellite phones.

(Army Sgt. Andy Mehler serves with the 28th Combat Aviation Brigade.)

U.S., NATO Officials Tackle Interoperability

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

Nov. 18, 2009 - U.S. and NATO representatives are gathered in Rome brainstorming for solutions to make their security elements work better together, officials said today. Security experts participating in Concept Development and Experimentation Conference workshops are pondering U.S.-NATO interoperability issues such as countering hybrid threats, security force assistance, strategic communications and deterring nonstate actors, said Navy Rear Adm. Dan W. Davenport, chief of U.S. Joint Forces Command's joint concept development and experimentation directorate.

The annual conference began Nov. 16 and ends tomorrow.

One insight that surfaced at the conference is "the need to embed strategic communications in every aspect of operations and making that a part of the planning and execution of the operations themselves," Davenport said.

Conference participants also ponder "the complexity and the uncertainty of the future environment," Davenport said.

For example, he said, security experts believe that some small, nonstate actors may one day possess large, conventional military capabilities. U.S. and NATO military forces "must be prepared to be able to deal with the full range of operations and the full range of capabilities that we face," Davenport said, as well as possess the ability to operate in several potential threat environments.

Some security experts also predict that future potential enemies, both nonstate actors and possibly nation states, will turn to a mix of asymmetrical and conventional threats, known as hybrid warfare, to confront the prodigious military power of the United States and its allies.

The world has witnessed hybrid-type warfare before, noted French navy Rear Adm. Christian Canova, deputy assistant chief of staff for future abilities, research and technology at Allied Command Transformation, a NATO command collocated with Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va.

The British in Northern Ireland, the French in Algeria and the United States in Vietnam, Canova explained, all fought opposing forces that employed a mix of guerrilla and conventional warfare during the 20th century. Yet, although hybrid warfare is not new, he added, not all of NATO's 28 member nations have experience confronting such a threat.

NATO's challenge is to have a common understanding of hybrid warfare among its 28 members, Canova said.

Unmanned Aircraft Crews Strive to Support Warfighters

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

Nov. 13, 2009 - As Pentagon officials look for ways to increase intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support for warfighters in Afghanistan, the Air Force's first unmanned aircraft systems wing already is on the case in its never-ending quest to provide more and better intelligence through the systems they fly. "I don't have to tell them to try to make it better," Air Force Col. Peter E. Gersten said of his 432nd Wing and 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing airmen at Creech Air Force Base, Nev. "They are working to make it better every day, all by themselves. ... Better every day is kind of a theme here."

The 432nd Wing flies the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper, both remotely piloted aircraft that provide 24/7 eyes in the sky over troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Our mission is to keep the joint ground fighter out of trouble, and when he gets into trouble, it's to get him out of trouble as soon as possible," Gersten said. "And with this new technology, we can do that now."

Both the Predator and Reaper provide a capability that Gersten, an F-16 pilot, said a pilot in the cockpit simply can't: a "persistent stare" and ability to hover over a precise location for as long as necessary.

"We have the ability to oversee the joint ground warfighter 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no weekends and holidays and without a break," he said. "We are not going 500 miles an hour. We are going 120 knots, right on top of him, and we are orbiting around him and helping him.

"We are dedicated to supporting him," Gersten said, "and we don't do anything else."

When a convoy leaves the "wire" in Afghanistan or Iraq, the 432nd Wing airmen oversee them every step of the way. "We are going to be there from the time they leave their forward operating base to the time they get to their desired destination," he said. "We are going to watch that soldier on the ground as he begins to do his search mission. We are going to be there."

Geren said the aircraft's ability to hover overhead for as long as necessary is a key in ensuring the information it gathers is complete, and that if strikes are required, they're precise.

"We don't show up on the battlespace and have 15 minutes of hold time to build our situational awareness," he said. "We have a high capacity to make sure that we have the exact, right target in our crosshairs.

"Time is not our enemy," he said. "We own time."

As his airmen fly the aircraft, analyze the mountains of raw data gathered and sift out what matters most to troops on the ground, Gersten said, there's really little about the systems that are "unmanned." He considers the term "unmanned aerial vehicle" a misnomer that loses sight of the manpower every mission entails, preferring the term "remotely piloted aircraft."

And he makes it clear that when he refers to the "system," he means far more than the actual aircraft.

"When I talk about the system, I am talking about the airplane, the ground station, the communication that links the ground station to the airplane, the product we produce that goes out -- the actual ISR intelligence," he said.

He noted the big network of airmen involved in the process, all committed to getting the information the aircraft collects into the hands of warfighters who need it. Regardless of their function within that framework, Gersten said, they recognize the value of their contribution.

"I hear stories all the time about how one of our aircraft stopped a convoy from driving over an [improvised explosive device] or kept a soldier from walking around a corner where there was an ambush, or helped get a wounded soldier out of a city by guiding him out," he said. "Those stories are day-to-day here. It's part of the pride of being 100 percent for the joint ground warfighter, every single day."

When he first sat down to watch his airmen at work after taking over his new command in June, he admitted, he was bowled over by their expertise. "The ability to talk, fly, communicate, text and execute, all very seamlessly, is a tremendous skill set," he said. "And it is amazing to watch them do it as fast as they do."

During his commander's calls, Gersten challenges the wing's airmen to channel their creativity and know-how to making the systems even better.

"I can't tell you what these systems are going to look like 10 years from now, but you can," he tells them. "You are the ones who will make this system the future. ... Make it something better than it is."

And they're coming up with new ideas every day. Some are "completely outside the box, but executable," Gersten said. Others are "way out there," not necessarily applicable now, but present new approaches and new ways of thinking that could apply down the road.

Gersten said he's particularly impressed with his wing's ability to take raw data collected by unmanned aircraft and translate it into "decision information" ground troops can act on.

"There was a time when we said, 'I'm drowning in data, but I am starving for knowledge.' But we have changed that," he said. "Four to six years ago, it was pretty good. Two years ago, it was really good, and today it is exceptional. Tomorrow, it is going to be beyond exceptional."

This capability has generated an almost insatiable appetite for the support unmanned aerial systems provide.

The Air Force has taken notice, funding more unmanned than manned aircraft in this year's budget and training more pilots to fly unmanned aerial vehicles than fighters and bombers combined. Yet, Gersten finds himself constantly working to allay some people's concerns that unmanned aircraft will some day muscle out their manned counterparts.

Remotely controlled aircraft have their unique capabilities, he said, and manned vehicles have theirs.

"We do a great job of enduring over the battle space, but we can't carry the load of a B-2 [bomber]" Gersten said. "We can go do endurance, and then they can come in and help us out. Or they can come in and do their job, and we can come in and look at it afterwards.

"It's not one system that is going to overtake the other," he continued. "These systems are complementary and have a very synergistic capability. So when people ask, 'Which way is it going?' I say, 'It's going together.' It is not a question of one or the other. It's a question of how much of each we need to secure the nation's interests."

Battlefield Success Depends on Technology Development

By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service

Nov. 12, 2009 - It takes an average of more than six and a half years from the time a Defense Department program is first funded to when it becomes operational, the department's No. 2 official said today. Speaking to a group of information technology professionals at a conference here, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III, laid out some of the challenges the defense acquisition process faces related to IT systems, and what the department is doing to remedy them.

Lynn said the current timeline means technology systems are being fielded five generations behind the state of the art. "By comparison, the iPhone was developed in less time than it takes [the Defense Department] to budget for an IT program," he said.

Laying out other challenges, Lynn said the military's infrastructure does not always take into account the technology savvy of many of its users – servicemembers whose youth and familiarity with gadgets puts them in the "digital natives" demographic.

"Unless we build systems for tech-savvy soldiers," he said, "we will continue to limit ourselves in the fight against tech-savvy enemies."

How the department integrates information into operations is among the most important determinants of U.S. military power, the deputy secretary said. "That's why IT is a focus of the Quadrennial Defense Review -- the department's once-every-four-years look at the threats we face, how we respond to them and what our national strategy should be," he said.

Quoting his boss, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Lynn said the old paradigm of looking at potential conflict as either regular or irregular war, conventional or unconventional, high-end or low, is no longer relevant.

"We now face a world of hybrid warfare -- insurgents with [improvised explosive devices] that can pierce heavy armor, terrorists that aspire to use cyberwarfare, and rogue states with weapons of mass destruction," he said. "These are the threats the QDR is grappling with. To defeat them, we need a portfolio of military capabilities with maximum versatility across the widest possible spectrum of conflict."

IT plays a crucial role in the era of hybrid warfare, giving U.S. warfighters more information about the threats they face and equipping them with the tools to defeat them, Lynn said.

"When our soldiers leave their bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, they travel with computers networked into powerful databases and combat support systems," he said. "Information that used to be squirreled away in headquarters, or on file in Washington, can now be accessed on displays in their vehicles.

"Not too far away, it will also appear on handheld devices that they carry individually," he added.

Lynn said such systems have made possible successes on the battlefield and in the realm of intelligence.

"Yet many of [these systems] did not exist when the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan began," he said. "They are here now only because of the dogged inventiveness of our troops in the field, who refused to accept the slow speed of the acquisition process in Washington."

Lynn said the U.S. military's continued success on the battlefield is contingent on continuing to field game-changing technology.

"Our challenge is to take wartime successes in innovation and institutionalize them departmentwide," he said.