Full Motion Video

This paper focuses on the capabilities of an emerging imagery medium known as Full Motion Video (FMV) and its potential to improve operational and intelligence support to all levels of warfare. While not a new technology, having been used on news helicopters for years, the US Air Force first successfully employed FMV sensors on the RQ-1 Predator remotely-piloted aircraft/unmanned aerial vehicle (RPA/UAV) over the Balkans in 1995. In spite of the exceptional success of numerous deployments throughout the Balkans and the Middle East over the past decade, the capabilities of the FMV sensor have not reached their full potential. This thesis evaluates this new imagery medium and its potential to provide near real-time situational awareness as well as improved command to tactical and operational warfighters at the same time that it provides four-dimensional imagery information to the imagery intelligence community.The key question this paper attempts to answer is, "How does the Tasking, Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (TPED) construct need to evolve to include and support the FMV medium?" In order to address the question, the study explores the background of the Predator program, establishes the baseline TPED construct, analyzes how well FMV fits within that construct, and offers suggestions regarding how that construct must change to best leverage the FMV medium.

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