480th ISR Wing's SENTINEL FOCUS 10A Hard Stare ensures ISR warriors ready for fight

  • Published
  • By Marge McGlinn
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. --  The 480th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Wing will conduct an operationally-focused review of the Sentinel weapon system, also known as the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System - DCGS, during the week of Feb. 22 to 26. SENTINEL FOCUS 10A is the second comprehensive review of the AF DCGS global enterprise and will encompass a qualitative and quantitative review of all five ISR Distributed Ground Stations.

"At the end of the day our customers want higher confidence reporting from our analysts," said Colonel Daniel R. Johnson, Commander, 480th ISR Wing. "We are in constant communication with ground forces before, during, and after their deployments. Because of our direct outreach to the ground forces and continuous technological improvements we are committed to this across-the-board review of the DCGS weapons system every six months in order to remain flexible and ready for any challenge man-made or from Mother Nature."

The premise for SENTINEL FOCUS is the need to optimize the Air Force DCGS enterprise with a holistic review of the weapon system's lines of operations, service offerings, and capabilities across the enterprise in order to present a unified ISR capability to joint and national consumers. The five-day event will provide the wing an opportunity to focus on the weapon system's support to the Operation Enduring Freedom surge, how ISR is playing an important role during the draw-down in Iraq, and the special armistice mission in the Republic of Korea. Recently, the 480th ISR Wing also provided critical disaster damage assessment imagery support to U.S. SOUTHCOM's rescue and recovery operations after the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

"Our initial SENTINEL FOCUS hard stare, held last August, is already reaping results and advancing the weapon system," noted Col. Johnson. "For example, we have seen direct results in the command, control and collaboration employment process across the ISR enterprise, common operational standards have been solidified, and flexibility built in to our systems to support the uniqueness of each supported Combatant Command and Numbered Air Force."

480th ISR Wing units and ground sites are located in California, Hawaii and Virginia as well as locations in South Korea and Germany. The wing also leverages a relationship with Air National Guard partners in those states as well as Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas Massachusetts, Nevada and Utah.

The 480th ISR Wing's mission is to execute 24/7, 365 day, ISR operations for Component and Combatant Commanders while fully participating in vital National Cryptologic missions. The vision for the wing is to create an Air Force ISR internal and external collaborative environment along with the integration of service, joint, coalition, and intelligence community partners.