Ultra Delivers the Connected Battlespace

Lori Thompson, SVP of Strategy, Business Development and Marketing at Ultra Intelligence and Communications, noted her colleagues throughout the corporation’s different divisions were at AUSA 2021 talking about ‘delivering the connected battlespace.’ “That’s really our mantra,” she stressed. Part of that message is the parent corporation’s sustained efforts to ensure ‘information advantage’ – and to convey what that means.

Reflecting on US DoD’s shift of strategy and focus to the Pacific, she explained military forces will much more likely operate in a contested space. “You have to think about your adversaries as your peers, and you have to create solutions that deliver more information to the warfighter in a faster period of time. Whether you are augmenting decision-making, which is where our military is today, or we’re looking at a future where you are delivering more automation to support decision-making, we have been investing in that kind of capability – the AIML [artificial intelligence and machine learning] cognitive battlespace – for years now. We’re starting to release that into products to market.” Of added significance, Ultra’s focus is integrating cutting-edge technology enablers – big data, algorithms and the like – that actually can take information and signals of interest, and situate them in a database that sorts, parses and delivers awareness and information, faster than one could aggregate solo.

An Ultra product that caught MON’s attention was Rapid Application of Information (RAIN), which automates the integration of national information with tactical data, providing more clarity and depth of knowledge for C2 in the Find, Fix, Track, Target, Engage & Assess process. “It is a really the pipe that allows you to get the information from various sources into a common operational picture,” Thompson explained. RAIN is approaching the beta-testing phase. “We’re anticipating final release in 2022.”

While RAIN and other Ultra solutions seek to deliver the right data, of rigorous quality, by way of tactical communications and management systems, to decision-makers, they also seek to dramatically compress the decision-making timeline.

Marty Kauchak reporting from Washington, DC for MON