Prototype collects UAV data via Web

The Defense Department is attempting to find funding for a prototype system that enables users to follow — in near real time — the progress of a live Global Hawk or Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from a network-connected Web browser.

The Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Information Service (ISRIS) prototype provides access to data from a UAV, using dynamic report generation and an interactive Web-based map display.

A Mitre Corp. employee working with the Global Hawk UAV Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) program office developed the ISRIS prototype. The system was developed under joint funding obtained from Mitre's Air Force and Army Contract Mission Oriented Investigation and Experimentation programs, according to a Mitre spokesperson.

To date, the prototype has been demonstrated with archived Global Hawk and Predator data, and has not been tested during a live flight. The first ISRIS demonstration took place in May 2001, according to the spokesperson.

John Stenbit, assistant secretary of Defense for command, control, communications and intelligence, received a lessons-learned presentation on the prototype last September and said he was pleased with the progress.

"Mitre's ISRIS prototype really fits my vision of the future where ISR information will be made available shortly after it is collected to the warfighters that need it the most," Stenbit said in a statement. "It's a great demonstration of what I call 'post before process' for populating the network with new, dynamic sources of information needed to defeat the enemy."

Joint Forces Command, which leads DOD's development of joint service concepts and experimentation, has submitted the ISRIS capability as a fiscal 2004 ACTD project and is trying to obtain fiscal 2003 funds to quickly develop the prototype into an operational system, according to the Mitre spokesperson.

Mitre's ISRIS team also is working with the company's technology transfer office to assess the potential for transferring the architecture and prototype to DOD and the private sector for concept demonstration and implementation.