EG1106 - GI: A Primer

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EG1106 - GI A Primer

• Exploitation of GI and Remote Sensing for Warfare
  Intelligence
• 18th March 2005

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Topics

• Structure of the intelligence services
• Cold War era uses of GI
• Modern uses of GI in warfare
• Modern uses of GI in intelligence
• GI and war crimes
• Iraq conflict

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Structure of the Intelligence Services
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Cold War Era Uses of GI

• Ever since post-war tension between the Soviet
  Union and the West increased, rocket technology
  (pioneered by the Nazis) has been used for spying
• High altitude aircraft as well as early polar
  orbiting satellites have been used for
  surveillance activities.

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Cuban Missile Crisis Sagua La Grande MRBM Site 1
- 23 Oct 62
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Cold War Era Uses of GI

• In order to facilitate their surveillance
  capabilities, the US introduced the CORONA spy
  satellite system after the programme was
  approved by Eisenhower in 1958
• The original incarnation would take photographs
  (of the Soviet Bloc countries) from space and
  then re-orbit the canned film for processing

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Cold War Era Uses of GI
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Cold War Era Uses of GI
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Cold War Era Uses of GI
Dolon Air Field, USSR - Selected heavy bombers
compared with selected transport aircraft 20 Aug
1966 Image from Corona satellite
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Cold War Era Uses of GI

• The CORONA satellite system became operational in
  1959 and different versions were introduced until
  it reached the end of its life in 1972 - having
  mapped 750 million square miles of mostly USSR
  and China.
• Details relating to the system were declassified
  and made public by a presidential order from
  Clinton in 1995
• Other satellites were tested in parallel with
  CORONA, such as Discoverer - but many of the
  launches were failures and a number of mice
  placed on board sadly perished!

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Modern uses of GI in warfare

• Modern battle situations make much use of GI and
  remote sensing technology
• Artillery, personnel, tanks, ships, planes etc
  are all georeferenced by GPS equipment relayed to
  central command HQ via encoded signals

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Modern uses of GI in warfare

• High resolution satellites can view enemy
  locations (personnel, tanks, ships and artillery)
  making their destruction by smart laser guided
  weapons more efficient
• Most front-line troops have access to computers
  with digital maps - regularly updated by comms
  links

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satellite
laser guider
command HQ
enemy
allies
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Area-51 Image from Ikonos 1m resolution
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Modern uses of GI in intelligence

• Human Intelligence (HumInt), Signals Intelligence
  (SigInt) and other sources of information are
  spatially referenced and combined within a GIS at
  SIS/CIA headquarters
• Numbers, distances and strike capabilities are
  assessed and strategic plans devised

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Modern uses of GI in intelligence

• Field agents (foreign intelligence) and
  watchers (security services) may often be
  provided with GPS equipment for target
  referencing and acquisition
• UK intelligence were caught out a few years ago
  when their carefully concealed devices were found
  in a Sinn Fein staff car in Northern Ireland

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GI and war crimes

• GIS has become an indespensible tool in the
  gathering and analysing of evidence for war
  crimes - particularly in the Balkans conflict
• Project Kosovo is a Rule of Law Through
  Technology initiative sponsored by the Illinois
  Institute of Technology and the Chicago-Kent
  School of Law

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GI and war crimes

• The Project Kosovo team created a database
  application, the War Crimes Documentation
  Database, that records and analyses war crimes
  data gathered from different human rights
  organisations in the Balkans and may be used in
  future areas of conflict

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Refugee evidence data - spatially and
temporally referenced
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Aerial photos record effects of conflict
on villages in the Balkans
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Landsat images show effects of conflict in Balkans
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Post-strike assessment of Southern Fallujah
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Baghdad Presidential Palaces
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