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ATAK: Android Team Awareness Kit - Duration: 6:56.
ATAK stands for Android Team Awareness Kit.
ATAK is an Android-based application that runs on a mobile device
that can be a phone or a tablet.
Going to do a boat infil on the bath.
We're going to come over here around,
skirt around this area, get into right near the marina
and we're going to infil near this gate. We'll breach that gate.
So first and foremost, ATAK allows for Blue Force Tracking.
In the past we'd sit in a room amongst all the players in the room,
multi agencies, and we'd have to pass the information back and forth
where the people are at. Nowadays we can put that on a map overlay.
You have the knowledge of where your other law enforcement
partners are at, whether they be a municipality,
a sheriff's office, state, police or other federal entities,
just having the knowledge of where they're located,
you know if you're going to potentially cross paths or not, so you're prepared for that.
CBP will be able to see what Coast Guard is doing.
Coast Guard will be able to see what HSI is doing,
out to U.S. Secret Service, outside into Justice and the State Department
through the FBI to include state and local, and tribal law enforcement.
Simply put, it'll allow DHS components to talk to each other,
and talk to our state and local partners.
The capability that ATAK brings to bear is essentially changing how we do our mission
at least in terms of how we exchange information.
It allows our agents to both receive and give real-time information
that can be video, that can be still pictures, that can be instant messaging and chat.
One example of how ATAK can be used in the field is happening right now in Texas
to support Hurricane Harvey rescue and security operations.
A broad number of different agencies have deployed to Texas
to provide rescue and security operations.
Going in, many of those agencies could not talk to each other,
had no awareness of where their mutual forces were.
ATAK has helped save countless lives during the flooding and devastation of Hurricane Harvey
and it has also given the first responders a platform to share information
that is real time and necessary for them to perfrom their duties.
Our guys will set position down this corridor right here, on the black side of the building
and wait for you guys to infil on birds.
We'll go to... the half will go out to the south and we'll just put ourselves on a 5-minute hold
and wait for you guys to make the call. Copy that.
Before ATAK, agents would have to pass GPS coordinates over a phone, over voice comms.
Now all that information could be transmitted instantaneously.
You can also drop points on a map, not only a pin of where the threat is at,
but we can also drop a pin or a icon of a helicopter or a boat,
or multiple other icons that are in there to describe where we're going to be
where our planned routes are at, and where the bad guys are currently at.
And that can be done from a helicopter watching,
from a camera at 33,000 feet, to point to us on the ground exactly where that individual is
instead of trying to articulate over the radio.
ATAK has the capability for us to also watch real time video from either public pole cameras,
public IP cameras, street cameras, traffic lights, or from some of our partner agencies' helicopter feeds.
Situational awareness is not only knowing where your element is, but any other friendly force as well.
And, if you're able to, knowing where the bad guys are.
Almost everything that I've ever done, real world, that involved multiple agencies -
we can never talk on the same frequencies.
And that can never get ironed out prior to a national emergency
because you can't predict these things happening.
And even after we have one, we all go back to ops normal, and no one goes back and tries to
work out those kinks before we have one.
So knowing that we're going to run into this, time after time,
having an ATAK allows us to get ahead of that problem.
Because even if we can't talk, we can view. And I'd rather not talk anyway.
I'd rather just be able to look down, see who is where on the objective, and move out.
The second thing would be under the umbrella of pre-mission planning:
the ability to gauge elevation. OK, so you're doing your map reconnaissance.
You can tell where the high points are, the low points are,
the places that are wide open that you would want to completely avoid, the terrain features,
so you can see why this has good cover and concealment. Whether you're on a helicopter
or you're in the mountains, sometimes the radio goes down.
You are able to send messages, so quick messages. Not that a lot of operators on the X
and on target moving are want to... going to want to pull something out
and start typing to each other, but even something quick or a pre-designated set of brevity codes
you can come up with in your pre-mission planning. So you're just taking the screen down, hitting a B,
well that B equals something that only the the team members know. You have that ability with ATAK.
All these things are very valuable for people like me, on the ground, conducting operations.
Two of the larger ones that we've used it for, one was the papal visit to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
and the other was the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
For both events we had a counter-sniper element
scattered throughout the city, placed in strategic locations
and they were able to send back real-time pictures and video.
So we therefore had a better picture of what was going on
in the city of Cleveland with any civil disturbances or protests.
So at the multi-agency command center they were able to then better decide
what resources were going to be needed, or potentially needed.
In terms of usability, it's relatively easy to pick up. Its core functionality is intuitive.
Everybody that I have talked to and everybody that I have trained says it is extremely easy.
Most people take about five minutes for me to train them up on the basic features.
DHS S&T has been a godsend to HSI.
The availability of research dollars has been incredible.
We would not have been in place we are, using ATAK, had it not been for DHS S&T.
So our partnership with S&T is immensely valuable.
We've developed a solid relationship with the APEX Border Situational Awareness Program
which has allowed us to deploy ATAK to targeted environments,
receive user feedback, make amendments to the application,
with the objective of eventually rolling that out to the field on a larger scale.
Ultimately, I believe ATAK is going to make our agents safer and more effective
and enable them to make better informed decisions.
This tool can allow us to respond quickly to a threat,
get oriented quickly, and move on it, because time is of the essence.
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Alan-Voo Family House by Neil M.Denari Architects - Duration: 1:22.
Alan-Voo Family House by Neil M.Denari Architects
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