When it comes to providing
warfighters with the best intelligence to carry out missions, the decisive use
of big data means more than compiling zeros and ones. It means giving
warfighters the kind of comprehensive, dynamic picture of an enemy’s operations
or environment that was previously unimaginable.
Likewise, the mastery of big data can provide
leaders with a better understanding of threats – shedding light on how the
United States could counteract adversaries’ plans and weapons systems, for
example.
For analysts and planners, it means being able to
leverage a virtual model of the real world that’s so thorough it cuts across
all domains, significantly increasing the warfighter’s ability to mitigate
risks and defeat adversaries.
On the whole, it enables decision advantage.
Enter MARS, the Machine-Assisted Analytic
Rapid-Repository System under development by the Defense Intelligence Agency.
MARS aims to make such gains possible by transforming current databases that
house foundational military intelligence into a multi-dimensional, flexible and
rigorous data environment for the next century, DIA announced May 23.
Advances in cloud computing, coupled with the
promise of artificial intelligence and machine learning, form the heart of this
initiative. As envisioned, MARS will also enable the simulation of courses of
action, allowing operators to quickly and fully grasp the likely effects of
proposed activities or movements.
DIA views MARS as the polar opposite of a static
acquisition program: it will be designed to solve problems with agile
development and early engagement with users to buy down risk as national
security challenges and priorities evolve. So its capabilities will
continuously improve as it matures. The agency is also working on a separate
experimental research effort – which includes technology demonstrations – that
will inform MARS’ requirements.
The need for transformation is both clear and
urgent.
DIA’s mission is to provide intelligence on foreign
militaries and the operational environment to prevent and, if necessary, win
wars. Databases that contain this information – the sum total of what the
nation knows about adversaries’ capabilities, tactics and military doctrine –
are now insufficient.
With data proliferating at the speed of light, DIA
must build a system capable of ingesting and managing large volumes of it, and
making it available to both humans and machines.
The re-emergence of competition among the world’s
great powers is also a reality. Recognizing this, the agency has made the
development of MARS its top priority. DIA relentlessly pursues better and
faster ways to deliver intelligence to planners, international partners and
analysts.
A more granular understanding of complex global events and a corresponding decision advantage are keys to the nation’s continued success. MARS will make it much easier for everyone from U.S. warfighters to national security policymakers to have both.
Source: DIA
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