I am always getting excited these days for some
reason or another. Maybe I am easily
amused? Maybe it’s because as a career
agent I like having great work to share with my network of professionals. Just recruiting everyday day after day a guy
could get bored, but not me at least not with work like this to amuse me. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I was
writing about CCIEs making History, (no not the Cave Geek thing) but really helping
the war effort with the Einstein3 Project.
Well Gorgon Stare is a real weapon used to track and kill targets in
warzones as an integral part of technology defense systems in Iraq, Afghanistan
and Pakistan. What happens behind the
scenes when some pilot sits at the controls of what appears to be a computer
game? Data and video are created and who
is responsible for the information? IT
professionals of course. So I am putting
out the call for these folks. Read more
and see if you don’t start salivating!
From Wikipedia:In Greek
mythology, the Gorgon (plural: Gorgons) (Greek:
Γοργών or Γοργώ Gorgon/Gorgo) was a terrifying female
creature. It derives from the Greek word gorgós, which means
"dreadful." While descriptions of Gorgons vary across Greek
literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair of
living, venomous snakes, and a horrifying gaze that turned those who beheld it
to stone. Traditionally, while two of the Gorgons were immortal, Stheno and Euryale, their
sister Medusa
was not, and was slain by the mythical hero Perseus.
Whoa
Eman aren’t you going to get arrested for divulging Top Secret information to
the whole world like that? Err…uh…I am
really not sure, I assume that if it’s in Wikipedia and several other websites
since the beginning of 2009 then I must be safe from government reprisal. I do know one thing though, this is really
cool technology and if you are an IT person looking for real interesting
history making work to add to your resume then read on. The recent work I have seen coming my way has
been to support several different companies looking for the right staff to
fulfill positions requiring Top
Secret/SCI clearances along with Full Life Style Polygraph clearance. So it must be said up front that these
clearances are a requirement to be included in this project.
I am
authorized by the Republic of Texas to shoot to kill, yup like 007 I have a
license to kill! So don’t think you can
fake a certification like our old friend Manny Ego did in Africa a few months
back to make people believe he was a CCIE.
Yup, Like Barney Fife I have been trained to deal
with these kinds of situations.
Here are two stories I found on the Internet about the project.
The US Air Force
plans to a field a new sensor pod in 2010 that is expected to revolutionise
tactical-level intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).
The Sierra Nevada sensor, which the USAF has
officially nicknamed the "Gorgon Stare", will initially provide a
wide-area, persistent surveillance system for its General Atomics
MQ-9 Reaper unmanned air vehicles. But its plans for the sensor will see it
become the new standard for the tactical ISR mission, and proliferate on to
several other unmanned and manned platforms operated by every service.
The
Gorgon Stare is intended to "become platform agnostic and feed into a
common system where it could go on any aircraft", says Brig Gen Blair
Hansen, the USAF's director of ISR capabilities. "It is part of a common
theme of integration and compatibility and is where we're going in the
future."
Airborne
systems that feature wide-area coverage, real-time playback and direct links to
troops on the ground have become popular in Afghanistan and Iraq. The US Army's
deployment of the Shorts C-23 Constant Hawk and the US Marine Corps' manned
Angel Fire platform are examples of the demand for wide-area, persistent
surveillance coverage.
The USAF's original
plan was to wait to deploy the Gorgon Stare on the MQ-9 in 2010, but that plan
was undone after Secretary of Defense Bob Gates publicly admonished the service
to be more responsive to immediate needs on the battlefield.
Last
May, USAF leaders approved Project Liberty, a plan to rapidly acquire 37
Beechcraft MC-12Ws - modified King Air 350/350ERs. The first aircraft equipped
with an L-3 Wescam MX-15 sensor is expected to be deployed in April, less than
one year after the original plan was approved. The MC-12W also will carry an
undisclosed signals intelligence payload.
Ultimately,
the USAF wants the Gorgon Stare system to supersede the various manned and
unmanned sensor pods now performing the wide-area, persistent surveillance mission.
Hansen notes that
programmes such as Angel Fire, while helpful, are closed-loop systems that
require dedicated logistics and training to support. Gorgon Stare is instead
designed to operate from any platform and integrate into the Distributed Common
Ground System, which is used by intelligence operators of all services to
analyse imagery.
The Air Force plans to
install a wide-area airborne surveillance sensor under its MQ-9 Reapers that
lets troops look at more of the battlefield from more angles. Ten of the
service’s Reapers will start getting the sensor in spring 2010.
The $15 million sensor
will film an area with a four-kilometer radius underneath the Reaper during
both day and night operations from 12 angles, said Robert Marlin, technical
adviser for Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
capabilities.
The Army started using
a similar wide-area surveillance sensor, the Constant Hawk, in 2006 and the
Marine Corps followed suit with an upgrade called Angel Fire in 2007. Those
sensors are mounted under manned aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan
The Air Force now has
improved on Angel Fire with its Gorgon Stare, named after Medusa’s gaze that
turned her enemies to stone.
Gorgon Stare allows any user to choose from the 12
angles that it can broadcast simultaneously, Marlin said; Angel Fire allows
multiple users to view its imagery but can broadcast back only one at a time.
Angel Fire is also limited to day operations.
Gorgon Stare will
allow a combat controller on the ground, a commander at headquarters and an
intelligence officer back in the U.S. all to choose a different angle from the
same Reaper, said Maj. William Bower, deputy program manager for the MQ-9
Reaper.
The sensor will
supplement but not replace the multi-spectral targeting pod aboard the Reaper
and the MQ-1 Predator that records full-motion video, Marlin said. He described
the Gorgon Stare’s feed as “motion imagery, which will be like a slow, jumpy
version of the full-motion video feed.”
Viewing that wider
area, though, will allow airmen to “see the bigger picture” and have a better
idea where to point full-motion video sensors, Marlin said.
Reapers and MQ-1
Predators are often called on to track vehicles and hover over buildings to
watch for “squirters,” or insurgents running out of buildings during U.S.
operations. Airmen controlling the sensors sometimes lose track of those vehicles
or squirters if they drive or run out of view too fast.
Gorgon Stare will be
invaluable in such instances, Bower said. Even if a vehicle drives out of the
view of the full-motion video sensor, it will still be within Gorgon Stare’s
range. Even if 12 squirters run in 12 directions, Gorgon Stare could dedicate
one angle to each one, Marlin said.
Even after a mission
is complete, Gorgon Stare will keep providing fresh intelligence by recording
each angle. Airmen can then return to a previous mission and view all 12 angles
to ensure nothing was missed, Bower said.
Reapers will initially
be the only aircraft to fly with the Gorgon Stare, but the RQ-4 Global Hawk and
manned aircraft could fly with it later, said Col. Christopher Coombs, 703rd
Aeronautical Systems Group commanders, whose unit is in charge of UAV
acquisition. The MQ-1 Predator and the Army MQ-1C Sky Warrior could be fitted
with Gorgon Stare if Air Force engineers can figure out how to lighten the
1,100-pound sensor, Marlin said
So what the heck are you waiting for driving to the same hum
drum government job everyday with that lunch bucket and a thousand mile stare? Don’t wait too long before calling me because
we are assembling a project team like no other and it requires professionals in
Storage, Virtualized Servers, Developers, Network Engineers, CCNPs, CCIEs and
CCIEs. Are you really thinking about
this?
Call Uncle Eman and let’s get started working on your
career!
PHOTO COURTESY OF 
I am
authorized by the Republic of Texas to shoot to kill, yup like 007 I have a
license to kill! So don’t think you can
fake a certification like our old friend Manny Ego did in Africa a few months
back to make people believe he was a CCIE.
So what the heck are you waiting for driving to the same hum
drum government job everyday with that lunch bucket and a thousand mile stare? Don’t wait too long before calling me because
we are assembling a project team like no other and it requires professionals in
Storage, Virtualized Servers, Developers, Network Engineers, CCNPs, CCIEs and
CCIEs. Are you really thinking about
this?
