'Valiant Angel' system to deploy soon

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - Military officials say they will soon deploy a system to Afghanistan that will allow warfighters to access, retrieve and store massive amounts of still and video imagery from the battlefield.

Intel specialists in the Norfolk, Va.-based U.S. Joint Forces Command's (USJFCOM) Intelligence Directorate (J2) are preparing the system for deployment later this month.

Called "Valiant Angel," the system uses commercial technology to improve access to, movement of, and storage of large data files, including full-motion video (FMV) and wide-area surveillance (WAS) products, for programs across existing networks.

Air Force Col. Skip Krakie, USJFCOM Valiant Angel lead, explained the need for the program.

Krakie cited "Constant Hawk" as an example. The Army image analysis system is mounted on aircraft and has numerous cameras that snap WAS photos at about two frames per second. It knits the images together to create a big mosaic made up of terabytes of data.

"That data was so voluminous that in 2008 the only way they could move it around was to drive it or fly it back to the states," Krakie said. "That's how we got it back from Iraq."

Krakie said the other piece of Valiant Angel involves making FMV from all the different unmanned aerial system platforms in theater accessible to users.

He said there may be warfighters on the ground in theater with a 56-kilobyte modem using the Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance Information System, which provides FMV situational awareness. Valiant Angel will give commanders better visibility into real-time and archived video, which is collected from manned and unmanned aircraft and ground-based sensors, by enhancing the FMV with additional information tied to the video clip.

USJFCOM's goal is to transition this system no later than fiscal year 2012.

(Compiled from release by MC2 (AW) Nikki Carter, USJFCOM Public Affairs)