Washington: The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is working with US Combatant Commands (COCOMS) to operationally test an early version of its Joint Regional Edge Node (J-REN) system designed to speed up satellite-based intelligence to the battlefield, according to NGA officials.
NGA began development of J-REN — a modernisation of NGA’s current information technology “pipe” to more rapidly fulfil commanders’ requests for urgent access to remote sensing imagery and analysis — just last year. The initial program includes hardware and software for four data processing systems that can be placed “at the edge” of a battlefield
“That’s why I’m really happy to tell you it’s already in its initial operating capability. It’s already out there,” Vice Adm Frank Whitworth, the agency’s director, said at the annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo.
