Intelligence: July 20, 2003

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Trojan Spirit (Special Purpose Integrated Remote Intelligence Terminal) equipment was very popular during the Iraq war. If you had it, you had an instant, 24/7 satellite link to all intelligence information available to the United States. Basically it's a PC hooked up to a portable, two way, satellite dish, Trojan Spirit gave commanders, down to the division level, unprecedented access to material being collected by satellites, aircraft, ships and other sources world wide. While your operators needed the right security clearances and passwords to get into some of these databases, the Trojan Spirit network eliminated the old wait, of hours or days, to get information, or be turned down for reasons that were never fully explained. But since the fast moving battles of the Iraq campaign put most of the decision making pressure on brigade or regiment commanders, these units are getting Trojan Spirit as well. Some brigades were already scheduled to get Trojan Spirit, like the army's new Stryker brigades (using wheeled armored vehicles for quick movement to distant trouble spots.) The brigade level gear is called "Trojan Spirit Lite" because the off-the-shelf equipment weighs less, and costs less than the standard Trojan Spirit (which are about three million dollars each.) The Trojan Spirit equipment is also used to control Predator UAVs, which use the satellite link to send their video images anywhere on the planet. 

 

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