Eagle Vision uses FalconView, a Windows-based mapping system software that displays various types of maps and geographically referenced overlays, shown here Nov. 12 at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Kate Rust) PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AFNS) -- A Department of Defense Eagle Vision team demonstrated its capability Nov. 9 through 14 at Peterson Air Force Base.
Eagle Vision is a family of deployable, commercial satellite ground stations that down link unclassified commercial imagery data from Earth-orbiting satellites.
Eagle Vision ground system operators -- teams that usually run about 12 to 15 people -- can rapidly process that data into a variety of formats within two to four hours of collection.
James Clark is Eagle Vision's creator and is director of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Innovations and Unmanned Aerial Systems Task Force for the deputy chief of staff for ISR at Headquarters Air Force. Mr. Clark runs the Eagle Vision program, the MQ-1 Predator, MQ-9 Reaper and Global Hawk task force, among other innovative programs. Day-to-day management of Eagle Vision is done by Jerry Brooks, who's been the Eagle Vision director since 2000.
The system is operated by members of four Air National Guard units and one active-duty unit, and has provided planning and mission support to combat operations since 1994, including most recently operations Allied Force, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom as well as disaster relief support during Hurricane Katrina and the Pacific Tsunami in 2005.
Mr. Clark's directorate functions as the Air Staff's innovation arm. Col. Robert Wright, the Space Innovation and Development Center commander, hosted Eagle Vision's demonstration at Peterson AFB.
Eagle Vision uses FalconView, a Windows-based mapping system software that displays various types of maps and geographically referenced overlays. This makes the Eagle Vision imagery available in a relational database, much like Google Earth.
"You click on an area on the map and get imagery related to that area," Mr. Clark said. "FalconView adds dimension to the imagery Eagle Vision provides." And that kind of data is critical to assess battle damage quickly and rapidly changing environmental conditions.
Military satellites such as those owned and operated by Air Force Space Command are prioritized to the warfighter and national agencies and often provide classified data to their customers. In contrast, Eagle Vision mainly supports disadvantaged user -- those forward area warfighters and first responders who do not have immediate access to imagery servers, especially during rapidly developing contingencies when timely, unclassified imagery is required. Military and national system priorities and classification may prohibit such use. But that doesn't mean Air Force Space Command officials are at odds with Eagle Vision; quite the opposite.
"Air Force Space Command applications are numerous, especially as the command pursues (potential) acquisition of its own family of commercial satellites for military utility," Colonel Wright said. "Eagle Vision already provides direct down link capability for various types of commercial satellite sensors, and it would be a natural progression to integrate any DOD/Air Force Space Command-owned commercial satellites to its inventory. Even if a permanent ground station were acquired as part of a theater overhead radar or BASIC-like architecture, by enabling Eagle Vision to down link the imagery as well, you'd essentially be expanding the ground architecture by five times since there are five operational Eagle Vision units."
Eagle Vision commercial imagery is unclassified, making it readily shareable/releasable to allies, coalition partners, emergency and first responders, non-DOD disaster response agencies, etc., unlike national or classified assets.
"Since we fight in a joint, combined and coalition environment, this share ability allows us to fight as one team," Colonel Wright said. "Acquiring commercial imagery is much cheaper and more affordable than building an exclusive military system from the ground up to support our service needs. By leveraging existing systems that are 'good enough' to meet warfighter requirements, we can save billions of dollars."
The Eagle Vision crew deployed to Peterson AFB is from the California Air National Guard. The California Air National Guard received the system in 2007 and quickly became immersed in providing imagery for numerous and persistent wild fires. This is their first deployment.
"Part of the reason we deployed (to Peterson AFB) was to show what we're doing -- to see if this is a tool that Air Force Space Command wants to develop," Mr. Clark said.