Raytheon, Penn State studying intel workflow

Raytheon is working with Penn State University on a gaming exercise to study how intelligence analysts work with the goal of improving tradecraft and streamlining workflow, the company said.

The User-Centric Analytics Grand Challenge uses a set of scenarios developed by Penn State researchers to game out a day in the life of intelligence analysts. The scenarios are based on real-life experiences.

“We created unclassified, high-fidelity physical and soft data sets based on real information over a two-year period,” David Hall, dean of the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology and a former Raytheon employee, said in a statement.

Jake Graham, a retired Marine Corps colonel, leads the team that has supported the challenge. Former intelligence analysts who now work for Raytheon, and current analysts serving in the reserve component, are participating in the first phases of the exercise, and later stages of the study will include analysts currently working in the intelligence community, Raytheon said.

The company also has entered the market for cross-domain information-sharing solutions. Raytheon’s Trusted Thin Client and High Speed Guard systems have tens of thousands of users across the U.S. military and intelligence community, as well as in the Australian navy, said Steve Hawkins, vice president for information security solutions.

“We see this as part of the next-generation desktop environment,” he said.