Exercise tests intelligence platform

  • Published
  • By Army Sgt. Tim Meyer
  • Northern Edge 2006 Joint Information Bureau
U.S. Strategic Command and the Air Force are among the government agencies testing the Dynamic Time Critical Warfighting Capability, or DTCWC, platform against realistic threat systems here during Northern Edge 2006.

Designed to analyze intelligence and verify its potential accuracy, the DTCWC works faster than human analysis. The platform’s mission is to augment intelligence analysts, not replace them. Its mathematic calculations, designed by The Johns Hopkins University, take minutes instead of days or weeks to sort through data and send it back to command centers.

During Northern Edge, DTCWC located anti-aircraft enemy targets and sent the information to the Pacific Air Operations Center in Honolulu.

B-2 Spirits, F-22 Raptors, F-18 Hornets, F-16 Fighting Falcons, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs and Navy ships with Tomahawk missiles all tested DTCWC at Northern Edge.

The Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center at Albuquerque, N.M., is analyzing the results of the DTCWC demonstration to see how it performs compared to designer expectations. The results will help the Air Force determine whether to fund the project.

The intelligence platform has been in development for one year as part of a joint effort between the U.S. Strategic Command, Pacific Air Forces, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, the National Security Agency and Headquarters U.S. Air Force.

The DTCWC builds upon algorithms developed under the Global Net-Centric Surveillance and Targeting “Gun Coast” program, which has been in development for two years and is funded by the Department of Defense and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.