The Army’s tactical signals-intelligence and electronic-warfare
system, the Prophet, has undergone a faster-than-planned development
cycle, in order to meet operational needs in Afghanistan. The systems
in the field today are not the full “100 percent solution,”
officials said, but they provide a sound foundation for the Army
to plan future upgrades.
The Prophet’s 7-meter collapsible signals-intercept antenna
mast is mounted on a Humvee truck, so it can travel with a brigade
or platoon, providing it “organic” communications intelligence.
It was conceived to give commanders a comprehensive, near-real-time
picture of enemy electronic emitters on the battlefield. It can
intercept radio communications, for example, and provide data about
the location of the enemy.
The Prophet represents “the beginning of a new way of doing
tactical or communications intelligence,” and replaces technology
that is more than four decades old, said Col. Kevin Peterson, systems
manager for the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC),
who is overseeing the Prophet project.
“We are moving away from everyone listening to the internals
and trying to find that golden nugget of information,” he
said. Instead, the Army is focusing on identifying “lines
of bearing,” which pinpoint the location of the emitter. The
Army then can identify the type of emission and make decisions based
on that knowledge, such as whether to engage or avoid the enemy.
In June, the Army unveiled the first two production models of Prophet
Block I, during a ceremony on Capitol Hill.
Block I can pick up signals from unencrypted push-to-talk radios.
The frequency range varies. “Mounted (inside the vehicle)
is 20-2000 MHz, and dismounted is 2-2000 MHz,” Peterson said.
Commanders always appreciate the availability of more intelligence
on the battlefield, he said. “These commanders don’t
know what they don’t know yet. They haven’t had good
tactical intelligence in more than 10 or 15 years. We are about
ready to open their eyes.”
“The system has been in Afghanistan and it works,”
said Ronald Gorda, senior vice president of Titan Systems, the prime
contractor for Prophet Block I. “One system is with a unit
right now in the current operations, and we are getting four more
ready for another contingency,” he said.
By November 2003, the plan is to field 83 Block I Prophets. The
top priority now is to equip the Army’s two experimental Stryker
brigades, Peterson said. These units are scheduled to receive Prophet
in September and October.
The Army spent approximately $14 million on research, testing and
evaluation of Block I, said Prophet’s program manager, Lt.
Col. Bill Stevenson. The cost per unit is $300,000, he said.
Prophet is more mobile than previous electronic reconnaissance
and monitoring systems, Peterson said. “This is the first
time we’ve fielded tactical intelligence assets that are a
direct support to a brigade,” he said. “Because this
information is being fed to the brigade commander, it gives that
commander a quicker reaction time,” he said.
The Prophet’s antenna mast can go up or down in 90 seconds.
“It gives the commander the agility, the flexibility and
the versatility to go after the battle space,” he said. Also,
fewer people are needed to run the Prophet than it took to run the
older system. “We reduced the footprint at least by 30 percent
in both equipment and people,” he said.
Before Titan was selected to build Prophet Block I, the Army used
the Foreign Comparative Testing Program to determine if the technology
it sought was available in other nations. The Army spent approximately
$500,000 to test signals-intelligence subsystems made by Thales,
from the United Kingdom; by Tadiran Electronics, from Israel and
by Midas, from Canada.
“We found that the capability exists, but it doesn’t
meet our requirements in terms of size, weight and power,”
said Stevenson. Existing capabilities require too much space to
comfortably fit on the Humvee, “which is a smaller envelope,”
he said.
Prophet Blocks II and III
The Prophet Blocks II and III will have more advanced capabilities
for intercept and more sophisticated countermeasures. They also
will allow the vehicles to operate in a network and relay data to
the future Objective Force Warrior, Peterson said. Block II will
focus on electronic attack, while Block III will have upgraded electronic
support, said Stevenson.
“The intent of the future Army is for that brigade or unit
of action commander to decide when to act, and when to not act.
…So if he doesn’t want to engage the enemy, he doesn’t
have to. He can move around the enemy. Before, our concept has been
‘you engage the enemy and you move around as you’re
engaging.’ We don’t do that anymore,” Peterson
said.
“Block I gives us enhanced capability of extended frequency
range. If we don’t get a good reception, we can quickly move
it to another location,” Peterson said. He explained that
the current legacy systems involve a more arduous process: “Stop,
erect an antenna, and if it doesn’t fit you bring it down
again, losing a good half-hour,” he said.
Block I is quieter that the existing systems. “We don’t
have a generator that you can hear at night. They are just [running]
off the battery of a vehicle, versus a high-pitched generator. You
have to charge up the battery about every two to two and a half
hours, but then all you do is turn the Humvee on and let it rev
up,” he said.
One useful feature is the availability of a seat in the vehicle
for a linguist. Linguists are absolutely necessary in current operations,
he said. The Army currently has trouble trying to “marry up
the right linguist, at the right location, at the right time,”
he said. “Now, even though the Prophet has a foresight for
a linguist, it doesn’t need that linguist, to be effective,”
he said.
“If we have the linguist, and the communications are not
encrypted, which is the case for Block I, then the linguist provides
a value-added to the Prophet for the brigade,” he said.
More importantly, the Prophet can detect when and where people
are transmitting at a given frequency at a particular location,
he added. Prophet operators can take the information, “decipher
what kind of unit it is, and the brigade commander can either act
upon it (the intelligence), or move away from it. It gives the brigade
commander a situational awareness he has never seen before,”
Peterson said.
“The philosophy of this program has been to get something
out in the field, quick, let the soldier use it, and then build
upon it. We have come a long ways from concept to test to production
within two years. … Then we are going to field it in two years.
We are going to have this whole process done in 4 to 5 years, and
that has never been done in the Army.
“Another big thing Block I did was go from tactical legacy
pieces that are in shelters to ones that are mounted on a Humvee,
so you can do [everything] on the move. You can be listening to
what is going on if you have convoy support.”
During a training exercise in Fort Polk, La., the Prophet was providing
convoy support. It was listening to the communications of the enemy.
“They found out they had eyes on that convoy and were about
ready to do a fire mission. He alerted the commander, and avoided
the ambush or artillery order, whatever it was,” said Peterson.
“In Block I to some extent, but Block II and III are going
to have very open architecture, software programmable, … plug-in
plug-out. Block I has duct tape and Velcro, strapping it in there,”
he said.
Being able to pick up advanced signals, such as cellular phone
communications, is in the Prophet’s initial operational requirement
document, but that capability was not reached for Block I, Peterson
said.
Blocks II and III funding is estimated at $20 million over fiscal
years 2003 and 2004, said Stevenson. The contract for Blocks II
and III, which will be worked on simultaneously, is expected to
be awarded by December, with initial operational test and evaluation
completed by July 2004. The first unit will be equipped by August
2005, he said.
In Blocks II and III, “We are going to start technology insertion
to include measurement and signature intelligence stuff,”
said Peterson.
The idea is for the Prophet to become a multi-sensor platform,
not to just perform communications intelligence, so you have a multi-spectral
look at the battle space, he said. “You have some unattended
sensors out here to give you that multi-spectral look of the ground
and what is going on.”
Peterson explained that even the initial improvements in signal
intelligence were so important to the Army, that the program office
was urged to get Prophet Block I to the battlefield quickly, even
if Block I didn’t have every desired capability.
“We wanted [to reach] an 80 percent solution and slowly work
to that 100 percent solution,” he said. “We will probably
never get that 100 percent solution, because radios are progressing
so quickly. That is why you use technology insertion to go after
that delta between what you can do today and what you have to do
tomorrow in another operation.”
The Prophet being fielded at Fort Lewis, Wash., will be part of
the Stryker brigade’s Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target
Acquisition (RSTA) squadron. “They are using the Prophet information
coupled with the ground surveillance radar and the unattended sensors,”
Peterson said. “They are cueing other sensors, particularly
the Hunter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). …That has never
been done before at this level of the Army. Even though we have
not fielded it yet to the big Army, we have seen big benefits already.
Our new concept is kind of, half-way, working,” he said. This
technology is “helping the brigade commander to think quicker
and be quicker than the enemy’s decision cycle,” Peterson
said.
Prophet operators use a laptop computer to monitor all three receivers
(the driver’s seat, the passenger seat, and the back linguist’s
seat) at the same time. “You get more capability out of the
system than you can with just one screen,” he said.