BTR Roundtable: Culture of Automation, Standardization and Ad-Hoc Collaboration Emerges as Key to Success in ISR Applications Across Emergency Management Operations
Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) technologies have evolved tremendously over the past decade to cut through the fog of war, providing more clarity and better situational awareness to warfighters on the battlefield. As ISR technologies mature, decision-makers responsible for emergency management operations at the federal, state and local levels are finding myriad applications that are enhancing safety and effectiveness as first responders address floods, fires, earthquakes and other natural or man-made disasters.
BTR Roundtable: The State of ISR in Emergency Management Agencies and the Road to Accelerated Adoption
Success of ISR in the emergency management environment will depend on the ability of a complex variety of organizations -- that often do not share a common command and control structure -- to effectively collaborate in highly fluid situations. Establishing a shared culture that values automation, standardization and ad-hoc collaboration will be critical to harvesting the full promise of ISR in support of emergency management missions.
These were among the conclusions of a virtual roundtable hosted by BizTechReports that featured industry leaders in the ISR technology community.
Distributed Leadership Essential for Effective Digital Collaboration
According to James Poss, CEO of ISR Ideas, and a retired major general in the United States Air Force where he served as Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance, Army and Air Force National Guard and Reserve units have done an impressive job of providing a central point of engagement for the emergency management community. These units, he says, have allowed first responder agencies (including police, firefighters, emergency management technicians) from different jurisdictions to assemble, co-create and configure ISR solutions that are optimized to address the specific demands of an emergency or catastrophe.
James Poss, CEO of ISR Ideas
“National Guard units from Mississippi to California have demonstrated tremendous leadership in bringing together counterparts from different emergency management agencies for joint training and exercises to get better at using ISR technologies and solutions. They are also, of course, getting a lot of practical work as they respond to wildfires, hurricanes and other events. As a result, even with the complex systems of today’s ISR landscape, things that used to take two or three days to set up are now being done in real-time by using commonly applied operational processes as well as standardized technologies.”
Operational conventions based on an open and decentralized approach to applying ISR capabilities to emergency situations require a cultural commitment from all stakeholders in the ecosystem. It calls for leaders to empower operators in the field to make decisions and establish ad-hoc processes that are based on shared standard operating procedures. It represents a step away from centralized command and control.
We are seeing the consequences of both operating models play out in the humanitarian disaster that is unfolding in Ukraine.
“Now Ukraine is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made disaster caused by a single man…Vladimir Putin,” points out Poss. But that conflict, he posits, illustrates the two very different approaches to capturing and responding to ISR inputs.
“The Russians are still operating in a very top-down driven centralized manner. People from the bottom don't talk at all. The Ukrainians, by contrast, have a much more Western approach, with many different players contributing to -- and benefitting from -- ISR information to meet military and humanitarian objectives,” he says.
Technology Standardization and Operational Coordination
Andy Vaughan, VP of ISR and Mission Systems at VITEC -- an IP video streaming and video encoding solutions provider for business, industrial and public-sector applications -- concurs.
Andy Vaughan, VP of ISR and Mission Systems at VITEC
“If you look at what's going on in Ukraine now, and compare it to the challenges faced by the first-responder community, the focus is all on information sharing. The key questions leaders are asking revolve around: How can I get as much information to as many people that need to see it out as quickly as possible?; How can this be done when network availability is fairly uncertain?” he states.
It is a situation that makes technology standardization critical to ensure effective interoperability. But it also calls for people with different backgrounds, expertise and experiences to adopt a common approach to accessing and working with the information.
According to Vaughan, the multi-disciplinary fusion centers that emerged across the country in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in 2001 have played a vital role in establishing a broad culture of collaboration. The fusion centers represent a shared commitment across federal, state and local government agencies that own and operate them. Individually, each is a vital resource for integrating information from national and local sources to prevent and respond to threats and hazards.
“These fusion centers have elevated the imperative to be a good partner at the table,” says Vaughan.
Connectivity is King
Communication networks are the connective tissue for creating seamless systems that integrate people with the information, technologies and solutions needed to analyze and act through emergency situations. This, says Kevin Thompson, Director of Public Safety at TrellisWare, is where managed ad-hoc networks (MANETs) are playing an increasingly important role. after existing communications infrastructures have been compromised by a catastrophic event. MANETs are decentralized wireless networks in which devices (such as mobile phones, tablets, and laptops) in an active emergency environment take on the role of routers forwarding traffic to the next link in the network.
Kevin Thompson, Director of Public Safety at TrellisWare
More work, however, is being done to enable an even more robust level of interoperability. The Department of Homeland Security, for instance, has an opportunity to take on the role that the Department of Defense has played in embracing and adopting standards that streamline joint operations.
“There are more standards and conventions that can be integrated into the emergency management community to ensure even higher levels of voice, data and video communication interoperability from the National Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to state and local emergency management agencies,” said Thompson.
You can watch the full roundtable at the following link: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/718837160