Delta (situational awareness system)
Delta is a
Delta is used by the Ukrainian military services, as part of the Russo-Ukrainian War, especially after the launch of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, for a wide range of battlefield management tasks, including the planning of operations and combat missions, coordination between units, and secure exchange of information about the location of enemy forces.[1]
On the backend side, it's a cloud native environment.[1] On the client side, it runs on regular PCs, laptop, tablets or mobile phones.[1]
Involved in the development and supervision of the system are the Center for Innovation and Development of Defense Technologies of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine,[1] the NGO Aerorozvidka and Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation.[1]
The system became broadly operational in August 2022.[2] The software was developed in coordination with NATO.[2] The system was first tested in 2017, as part of a NATO initiative "to wean troops off Russian standards of siloing information among ground units instead of sharing it".[2] Ukraine surprised NATO in quickly making this system even more accessible to troops than "more modern militaries".[2] Delta, in its prototype phase, was first "pressed to its limits" during the Ukrainian counteroffensive to the Russian Kyiv convoy.[2] The Ukrainian Defense Ministry credits Delta for helping identify 1500 confirmed, Russian targets daily during this time period.[2]
In December 2022, Delta was the target of an adversarial phishing endeavor.[3][4]
On 4 February 2023, the Ukrainian government gave approval to full deployment of the Delta system to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and permitted hosting of Delta's cloud-components outside of Ukraine to protect it against missile and cyber attacks.[5]
Centrality of drone warfare
Aerorozvidka specializes aerial reconnaissance and drone warfare and their main contribution to Delta likely lies in this sphere. Delta, in this view, serves as a key link between raw reconnaissance (often remote photographic telemetry), identification, prioritization, and attack, facilitating a more rapid response cycle across diverse and dispersed participants and resources, known in military parlance as the kill chain.
Systems such as Delta are poised to become a key information-management component of the rapid evolution of drone warfare on the modern battlefield.[6] Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Digital Transformation, would like to see 10,000 drones operating continuously along the front lines.[6] This vision entails a substantial network of digital coordination.
For reasons of ongoing operations security, the precise nature of the integration between Delta and drone warfare remains undisclosed.
See also
- Command and Control
- Intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance
- Drone warfare
- Kill chain
- Defense industry of Ukraine
- GIS Arta
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Ukraine unveiled its own Delta situational awareness system". mil.in.ua. Militarnyi. 27 October 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ^ New York Times. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
Three months ago, as Ukrainian troops were struggling to advance against Russian forces in the south, the military's headquarters in Kyiv quietly deployed a valuable new weapon to the battlefield.
- ^ Toulas, Bill (19 December 2022). "Ukraine's DELTA military system users targeted by info-stealing malware". bleepingcomputer.com. Founded by Lawrence Abrams. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ^ Kovacs, Eduard (20 December 2022). "Ukraine's Delta Military Intelligence Program Targeted by Hackers". Security Week. Wired Business Media. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ^ "Ukraine's Defence Forces to introduce Delta system which gives advantage over occupiers". Ukrainska Pravda. Retrieved 2023-02-04.
- ^ Washington Post. Kharkiv, Ukraine. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
The goal, Fedorov said, is 10,000 drones flying along the vast front line, to broadcast the fighting without interruption.
