The U.S. Army is implementing an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance architecture modernization strategy that includes quantum computing and commercial satellite communications for the space, terrestrial and aerial domains, branch officials told attendees of the Association of the United States Army conference.
Leaders including Lt. Gen. Laura Potter, Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence, and Andrew Evans, director of the Army’s ISR Task Force, expounded on the Army Field Manual FM 2.0 – Intelligence doctrine published earlier this month.
Potter explained that the service branch’s ISR transformation will take place in “three layers: the space layer, taking advantage of government and commercial space based resources; an aerial layer that’s a mix of manned HADES [High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System] aircraft and unmanned platforms; and then a terrestrial layer that has terrestrial layer sensing at the brigade level and echelons above brigade.”
The ISR Task Force is considering whether to continue using traditional means of obtaining data and analysis or purchase them from commercial satellite providers, which are increasingly deploying their systems on orbit.
“We’re talking about swarming using autonomy as fast as we can and proliferating it as wide as we can. Autonomy is gonna be key in the future,” Evans said. “We’re also talking about how we manage all of the data, because that’s going to be a tall order.”
