Today, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) remain the most significant cause of casualties to NATO troops and civilian populations alike in conflict zones. One way that IEDs are triggered is through remote activation.
The NCI Agency in The Hague recently hosted a hands-on technical training event focused on the exploitation of radio components used in IEDs.
The training was delivered by an expert team from the United States Department of Defence, and was attended by specialists from NATO Nations and Ireland, a NATO Partnership for Peace Nation.
Data extracted through the technical exploitation of remotely controlled IEDs is essential to supporting the development of force protection systems and other technical intelligence efforts.
Standardizing the IED exploitation process
This training event promoted the standardization of the IED exploitation process, so that a minimum quality of exploitation is ensured among Alliance members and partners.
During the training, the Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate (I2WD) of the United States Department of Defence presented their development of a technical forensic and recognition toolset known as the Mobile Object Recognition and Aggregate Data Extractor (MOR/AADE).
When used together, the MOR and AADE systems have the capability to perform an electronic exploitation of specified recovered material and a standardized forensic evaluation of the radio frequency characteristics.
MOR is an application that implements automated image recognition algorithms to support the identification of devices and is available on mobile devices. The AADE component has been developed by I2WD through a collaborative research agreement with industry and consists of a number of measurement instruments integrated into a mobile solution.
Standard Operating Procedures have been encoded in software components by the I2WD team to significantly reduce the exploitation time.
USA Smart Defence initiative
USA is leading a Smart Defence initiative that will give NATO Nations and Partner Nations access to both the commercial and governmental components of the MOR/AADE toolset.
The training was delivered by an expert team from the United States Department of Defence, Research Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM), the Communication and Electronic Research and Development Engineering Center (CERDEC), and the Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate (I2WD), Technical Forensics Exploitation (TFE) Laboratory.