Delta is a
situational awareness
Situational awareness or situation awareness (SA) is the perception of environmental elements and events with respect to time or space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their future status. An alternative definition is tha ...
and
battlefield management system A battlefield management system (BMS) is a system meant to integrate information acquisition and processing to enhance command and control of a military unit.
France
The French Army is using SICS (Système d'Information du Combat de SCORPION - SCO ...
developed and used in Ukraine. The system integrates information from a broad network of participants, including troops, civilian officials, and vetted bystanders;
and a wide range of streams,
[ including sensors, intelligence sources, surveillance satellites and drones,][ especially geolocated data, which it maps in real time, along with pictures of enemy assets.][
Delta is used by the Ukrainian military services, as part of the ]Russo-Ukrainian War
The Russo-Ukrainian War; uk, російсько-українська війна, rosiisko-ukrainska viina. has been ongoing between Russia (alongside Russian separatists in Ukraine) and Ukraine since February 2014. Following Ukraine's Rev ...
, especially after the launch of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. ...
, 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.[
On the backend side, it's a cloud native environment.][ On the client side, it runs on regular PCs, laptop, tablets or mobile phones.][
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
Ministry may refer to:
Government
* Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister
* Ministry (government department), a department of a government
Religion
* Christian mi ...
,[ the NGO ]Aerorozvidka
Aerorozvidka ( uk, Аеророзвідка, "aerial reconnaissance") is a team and NGO that promotes creating and implementing netcentric and robotic military capabilities for the security and defense forces of Ukraine. Aerorozvidka exemplifies ...
and Mykhailo Fedorov
Mykhailo Albertovych Fedorov ( uk, Михайло Альбертович Федоров; born 21 January 1991) is a Ukrainian politician, and businessman currently serving as Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation ...
, Minister of the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation
The Ministry of Digital Transformation ( uk, Міністерство цифрової трансформації України) is a government ministry in Ukraine that was established on 29 August 2019 when Mykhailo Fedorov was appointed as Mi ...
.[
The system became broadly operational in August 2022.][ The software was developed in coordination with ]NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
.[ 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".][ Ukraine surprised NATO in quickly making this system even more accessible to troops than "more modern militaries".][ Delta, in its prototype phase, was first "pressed to its limits" during the Ukrainian counteroffensive to the Russian Kyiv convoy.][ The Ukrainian Defense Ministry credits Delta for helping identify 1500 confirmed, Russian targets daily during this time period.][
In December 2022, Delta was the target of an adversarial ]phishing
Phishing is a type of social engineering where an attacker sends a fraudulent (e.g., spoofed, fake, or otherwise deceptive) message designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information to the attacker or to deploy malicious softwa ...
endeavor.
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.
Centrality of drone warfare
Aerorozvidka specializes aerial reconnaissance
Aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance for a military or strategic purpose that is conducted using reconnaissance aircraft. The role of reconnaissance can fulfil a variety of requirements including artillery spotting, the collection of i ...
and drone warfare
Drone warfare is a form of aerial warfare using unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) or weaponized commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The United States, United Kingdom, Israel, China, South Korea, Iran, Italy, France, India, Pakis ...
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
Telemetry is the in situ collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Greek roots ''tele'', "remote", an ...
), 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
The term kill chain is a military concept which identifies the structure of an attack. It consists of:
* identification of target
* dispatching of forces to target
* initiation of attack on target
* destruction of target
Conversely, the idea o ...
.
Systems such as Delta are poised to become a key information-management component of the rapid evolution of drone warfare on the modern battlefield. Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Digital Transformation, would like to see 10,000 drones operating continuously along the front lines.[ This vision entails a substantial network of digital coordination.
For reasons of ongoing ]operations security
Operations security (OPSEC) is a process that identifies critical information to determine if friendly actions can be observed by enemy intelligence, determines if information obtained by adversaries could be interpreted to be useful to them, a ...
, the precise nature of the integration between Delta and drone warfare remains undisclosed.
See also
* Command and Control
Command and control (abbr. C2) is a "set of organizational and technical attributes and processes ... hatemploys human, physical, and information resources to solve problems and accomplish missions" to achieve the goals of an organization or en ...
* Intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance
* Drone warfare
Drone warfare is a form of aerial warfare using unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) or weaponized commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The United States, United Kingdom, Israel, China, South Korea, Iran, Italy, France, India, Pakis ...
* Kill chain
The term kill chain is a military concept which identifies the structure of an attack. It consists of:
* identification of target
* dispatching of forces to target
* initiation of attack on target
* destruction of target
Conversely, the idea o ...
* Defense industry of Ukraine
The defense industry of Ukraine is a strategically important sector and a large employer in Ukraine. After working for several decades mostly for the arms export markets, in 2014 it has moved significantly into increased Ukrainian military procure ...
* GIS Arta
References
{{Authority control
Military of Ukraine
Information technology in Ukraine
2016 establishments in Ukraine
Reactions to the Russian invasion of Ukraine