Army Sets New Tech Initiatives for Long-Range Threat Detection, Tracking

U.S. Army officials outlined new initiatives to build defense systems that would enable the military to “see” from thousands of miles to detect and track targets, C4ISRNet reported Tuesday. The service intends to develop a long-range penetrating capability to address the growing efforts of adversaries to create systems that could hit or affect the U.S., such as long-range missiles and advanced radar equipment. 

“Right now, we have a challenge with sensing deep in the United States Army. The chief’s No. 1 priority for modernization is long-range precision fires,” Maj. Gen. Robert Walters, commander of the Intelligence Center of Excellence, said during the recent AUSA Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Ala.

The Army wants to build a new multi-domain sensing system, artificial intelligence-based moving target identification sensors and a Terrestrial Layer System combining signals intelligence and electronic warfare system to observe enemy territory. The service also established an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance task force to help in multi-domain operations in 2018. 

“The ISR TF is working with long-range precision fires, assured precision, navigation and timing, and future vertical lift cross-functional teams to optimize existing intelligence capabilities, as well as to identify critical collection requirements from the space to the terrestrial layer that can provide targetable data in support of long-range precision,” said Army Spokesperson Cheryle Rivas.