Information Fusion: Intelligence Centers and Intelligence Analysis
September 11, 2001, marked a major turning point for domestic and international information sharing among militaries and civilian security services. The U.S. Department of Defense, for one, transformed itself from a Cold War fighting force to one tailored
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Information Fusion: Intelligence Centers and Intelligence Analysis Victor Catano and Jeffery Gauger
Abstract September 11, 2001, marked a major turning point for domestic and international information sharing among militaries and civilian security services. The U.S. Department of Defense, for one, transformed itselffrom a Cold War fighting force to one tailored to fighting global terrorism and terror-sponsoring regimes. The international character of terrorism required new information technology and new sources of information. The variety and volume of information also required an organizational structure to overcome the compartmentalization of intelligence. Fusion centers became the solution. This chapter summarizes the existing literature on information and intelligence fusion in both civilian and military fusion centers. It recounts the development of civilian fusion centers intended to deal with domestic terrorist threats and examines how the concept has been applied in military organizations. The paper reviews different models that have been used to develop fusion centers. Keywords Information fusion
Fusion centres Military intelligence
Introduction Militaries have always recognized the need for superior intelligence. Operational success depends on the ability to integrate information about the battlespace and enemy forces. Until the late twentieth century, intelligence came primarily from human sources, with the strength of the information being based on the credibility V. Catano (&) Department of Psychology, Saint Mary’s University, 923 Robie St., Halifax, NS B3H 3C3, Canada e-mail: [email protected] J. Gauger Director Research Personnel Generation (DRPG 3-4), Department of National Defence, Ottawa, ON K1A 0K2, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of National Defence 2017 I. Goldenberg, J. Soeters and W.H. Dean (eds.), Information Sharing in Military Operations, Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42819-2_2
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of the source. Aerial reconnaissance and satellite technology were big Cold War advances in intelligence gathering. By today’s standards, the information and sources of information were limited, but they did draw a picture of the adversary’s social, political, and economic strengths and weaknesses (Whitfield 2012). A good illustration is the Cuban Missile Crisis where aerial reconnaissance identified what appeared to be Russian missile silos on Cuban territory. The only analysis involved correctly identifying the images and then assessing the threat. Over the last few decades, however, both the sources and quantity of information have expanded exponentially. Information now comes from radio, television, media, the internet, electronic signals, cell phones, satellites, and unmanned aerial vehicles. The sheer quantity of information can undermine accurate interpretation of the data or cause crucial intelligence to go unobserved (Chizek 2003).
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