Weather forecasting. Land management. Map making. Espionage. Aerial observations of people, places, and phenomena have become common place in our techno-crazed society. Movies like Patriot Games and Enemy of the State have presented a fast-paced--though frequently inaccurate--picture of what life and work are like for those who monitor our world from above. I hope this brief tutorial on military imagery analysis (referred to as photo interpretation in previous generations) will help the reader sort fact from fiction.
Map/Film Correlation
Knowing where you are is the first step in understanding what you're looking at. For the imagery analyst, this involves map-film correlation. The map-film set below illustrates the concept. The 1:500,000 scale map segment of Serbia shows two airfields in close proximity to each other; only one has a dual runway, Batajnica. The NATO image of Batajnica Airfield on the right clearly shows the dual runways, confirming this airfield's identity.
Facility Identification
Although an opponent's denial and deception efforts can confuse (or even fool) even a skilled analyst, as a general rule a facility's layout usually reveals its function. A few examples:
Command, Control, and Communications (C3)
This NATO imagery of the Ivanjica SATCOM station in Serbia clearly shows the large parabolic dish, control center, and support buildings in operational (pre-strike) and not-so-operational (post-strike) configurations. The facility was destroyed as part of NATO's efforts to degrade Serb command and control over its field forces in Kosovo.
Terrorism
Often located in remote areas, terrorist training facilities are usually spartan: tents or small, crude huts for housing personnel; small arms and grenade ranges for training in "close range work"; and light utility vehicles for resupply runs or personnel transport. The DoD satellite photo at left shows the Zakab West Training Camp prior to the August 1998 cruise missile strike aimed at Saudi-born terrorist Osama bin-Laden and his Al Qaeda network. The strike failed to kill bin-Laden, and his subsequent attacks on the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000, and the more spectacular and deadly 9/11 operation, revealed how badly prepared the United States was to deal with what former CIA bin Laden Unit head Mike Scheurer has described as a global Jihadist insurgency.
Petroleum, Oil, and Lubrication (POL)
Armies run on their stomachs...and their fuel tanks. Gasoline, diesel, jet fuel--all are produced at refineries like Beograd POL Storage Facility, pictured here in pre- and post-strike NATO imagery from the Allied Force air campaign in 1999. In this photo, only the storage tanks have been destroyed; the refinery itself appears undamaged. In my experience, such selective targeting was usually employed to allow the target country to more quickly rebuild its infrastructure...a posture usually rendered meaningless by the inevitable economic sanctions that linger long after the guns have gone silent.
Nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) weapons storage
Although decontamination trenches, decontamination vehicles, and extra security measures often suggest a facility's association with NBC weapons, sometimes those signatures just aren't present--even though the weapons are on site. Such was the case at Iraq's Khamisiyah weapons depot, located southeast of An Najaf. As the DoD imagery below shows, no chemical decon trenches are present at the open-air pit (enlarged below) where the Iraqi's moved the sarin-filled 122mm rockets in February 1991; no special security fencing appears to be present either.
When American airborne engineers with the 82nd Airborne Division destroyed these weapons in March 1991, they had no idea the rockets contained degraded sarin nerve gas. The demolition of the Iraqi chemical weapons resulted in widespread low-level chemical exposures among American troops. Recent medical studies conducted by the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center--along with pre-war U.S. Air Force research into low-level chemical exposures--strongly suggests potential long-term neurological impairment from exposure to even minute quantities of nerve agents such as sarin and soman.
Equipment Identification
Knowing the difference between a tank or an infantry fighting vehicle is often not enough; analysts must frequently be able to identify the specific model of a vehicle in order to determine whether a unit has received improved equipment. Often the differences between models can be subtle.
The areas circled in red on both the image and the line drawing are of the Commanders Independent Thermal Sight...a signature unique to the M1A2 version of the Abrams tank and seen here next to an M1A1. Both vehicles were photographed by the author at Ft. Hood, Texas in August 1993.
This tutorial only skimmed the surface of the field of imagery analysis. If you have specific questions, feel free to email me at eddingtonpack@verizon.net.