UK ramps up analysis of Afghan IMINT

摘要

UK Royal Air Force (RAF) intelligence operatives have established a reachback' facility at a base in Norfolk to allow intensive analysis of full-motion video (FMV) imagery collected by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flying over Afghanistan. Codenamed the Crossbow Capability after the famous US-UK intelligence link-up during the Second World War to hunt for German V weapons, the effort involves imagery analysts at RAF Marham monitoring real-time FMV collected by RAF-and US Air Force-operated General Atomics MQ-1 and MQ-9 Reaper UAVs. RAF Marham started receiving the feed in March from the US Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS), which provides global satellite network connectivity for the US military and allies forces.