welcome to this week in defense news. i'm vago muradian. we'll take a look at how one company is preparing veterans for careers in it. first we're coming to yu from the pentagon to discuss one of america's key war fighting advantagings the ability to gathers intelligence on enemies and threats worldwide, 365 days a year. a force that includes satellites, manned and unmanned a aircraft and global communication systems to gather images and data and video across networks in realtime, but the networks that the united states has built have been tayloreded to support operations in iraq and afghanistan. that force will have to change as the united states focuses

increasingly on the pacific where distances are greater and it will face far more sophisticated potential adversaries, here to talk about the future of the sprawling network is the deputy chief of staff for intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, lieutenant general larry james. welcome to the program. >> thanks good to be here. >> let's start off first before we get into the future of f that. all eyes are on the operation that are going on in mali and said that the united states is supporting that through intelligence and other means. what can you tell us about the support the united states is giving the mission. >> i didn't get into operations and support at this time. i would refer you to th secretary of defense's comments and the things he has said to date and it's in flux as we work our way through this situation, but he will take the lead on that. >> let me go to the issue of just al-qaeda in general. the end product is tracking this persistent resilient enemy as it moves around the world. what are we seeing in terms of

trends of what is flowing from afghanistan or flowed to a little bit like water finding a space where it can dwell. >> i think we see this as an enduring problem as we have said that we're rebalancing to the pacific. and we've seen that we must continue to remain focused on the middle east area because of that problem. frankly the entire intelligence community is focused in that area as well as the pacific and we will continue to do that in terms of tracking those adversaries and making sure that we are aware of what's going on. >> let's go to the issue of afghanistan obviously. going to be a reduction there obviously the specific numbers are in flux, although it's always been said that, you know, if anybody's going to be staying there it's going to be the u.s. air force whether to provide strike support for afghan forces and intelligence support. do you have any idea what the size of your piece of the

equation will be in the long- term in the country. >> currently being discussed at the highest levels at the presidential level. we'll have to see how that plays out. as we come out of afghanistan just as like we came out of iraq as we reduced the forces, you do find that intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance are the last to leave because you want to retain that capability to see across the battle space even as you reduce your footprint. >> how much, you know, there are some folks that say regarding the cable that it doesn't have a lot f of applications outside of afghanistan but how much of the force we've generated has utility over the long haul there's going to be that balance between a permissive environment in terms of air operations which is what we've been operating in afghanistan and iraq and permissive air environments in other regions of the world where we can fly the capabilities whether it's predators and reapers or u2s,

whatever the case maybe be. you need those capabilities that can operate in more high treat environments. >> what kind of capabilities, when you mentioned more high threat in the pacific, the criticism is you need far greater rage and you're going to need greater amount offense stuff what is the specific responsibilities that the air force needs to be able to operate over the pacific the way we've been operating over iraq, afghanistan yemen and other places. >> we talk about moving to the all source capability. we focused on the airborne layer of intention over the last decade as we operate in iraq and afghanistan. when you look in the computer where do you gather all this data, the space capability, the airborne capability, human intelligence capabilities, cyber capability, all of these things have to be brought to bear in the threatening environments for the future. >> air force leaders for a long time as well as analysts have said that the air force really

needs to go to a new generation of stealthy reconnaissance capability to replace predator reaper as well as global hawk, what's the status of that, where are we in developing better systems that give us that freedom of maneuver. >> well, one of the areas frankly we're foxed in is leveraging existing stealthy platforms like the f22 and the f35 which are also tremendous collectors of information. if you look the at the sensor suites that they have on board in terms of electrical optical and signal intelligence, those sorts of things, we believe that we can leverage those because they are tremendous collectors. they are able to penetrate high threat environments and so that's certainly an area that we are looking at in the near and the long-term. >> let's go to the question of the number of orbits that the air force needs to generate. i know this has been a contention issue over the years

but at one point it was to be able to generate 50 orbits and each for remotely piloted airplane craft to generate a 1 aircraft over a particular spot for 24/7 coverage. and then the number went to 65 and you were building 65 and then it was like to be able to surge to 80. that was at the height of the aversion and iraq wars. are these requirements still valid and at what point is the air force going to be told you don't have to build to that. >> i think that will be a dialogue that we have, especially as we build the f515 programs and look at the future and discover what is the footprint in afghanistan, what is the footprint across southwest asia and what do we need for the less permissive environments. the current guidance is 65 with the capability to surge to 85. our budget supports that and by may of 2014 we'll reach that

camability but will have to assess is that the right number and i think it will be dependent on the world situation and where we need to invest as a nation. >> how many orbits are you at. >> currently at 59 combat air patrols. >> and coming online, how many of them are you increasing by on a steady basis. >> maybe 4 per year, 5 per year. but we get to 65 in may of 2014. so that gives you a sense of the speed. >> more with the air forces intelligence chief lieutenant general larry james, in just

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we're back with lieutenant general larry james at the pentagon. sir, let me ask you the question about how you managed to analyze all of the information you're gathering and i've asked this question of air force leaders over the year. each one of these air a craft is gathering more and more data than ever before and at one point you said you needed # 100,000 more airmen. how much is real. how are you dealing with solving the big data problem you're facing. >> first let's talk about the hundred thousand number. that was a ran study that said if we did nothing differently if terms of how we processed data weld need one hundred thousand people to do this job. frankly we're not going to get that. i like to use our next generation, wide motion sensor on the r and d side ask that will create the equivalent of

85 years of high definition videos in one day. that gives you a sense of the size of data we're talking about from just one sensor. so the reality is we have to have the machines help us prose all this data so the human can get to the things he does best in terms of analysis and understanding versus just trying to handle the data. >> what are some of the specific you guys can use in order to help solve that problem. >> first of all it's the ability to go out and find the data. there's multiple data bases out there in the intelligence community. we want the machine to find these source offense data, to attack the particular problem set we've been given. once you're able to do that the analyst doesn't have to waste his time looking over the info spear. >> is that what's pushing a lot of the intelligence community to the cloud is one of the things that's pushing you to the cloud as well. >> absolutely, so that we can have common data sources and data bases the ability to twine -- define the data and allow

the analyst and machine to get to it very easily. once the machine brings it all in, we also want to create the fusion capabilities that fuse imagery data, intelligence data and put it together for a particular location or particular problem so the analyst can start to look at the prop from a holistic fashion. >> let's me take you @ arc battleship. to foster greater operational cooperation between the air force and the navy for the so called antiaccess area denial where there are nations developing certain capabilities to force american forces away from their shores in a crisis situation. what are some of the specific investments that your enterprise is going to have to make to prepare for that concept, to support that concept. >> first as we work battle we are very cognizant of the intent surveillance and reconnaissance needs.

and we have a team that would look at that specifically. i would go back to the original comments, it truly is about all source data because there's not one silver bullet system that's going to be able to allow you to solve the problem set you've been given. it's really about bringing this sources of data together to allow you to solve the problem. that's the focus. we like to say we're becoming sensor agnostic and it's about the data and getting your hands on the data that's being created by a plethora of systems. >> it's more of a data management problem than a collection problem in some respects. >> in some respects yes, but you obviously have to have the platforms and the sensors to get the data. that can be a host of different things, space born, airborne, penetrating, cyber open source whatever the case may be b. >> one question, you're talking about popular agnostic, one o. platforms folks have been using

in iraq and afghanistan have been tether balloons and a air row stats. >> has not been an air force focus, frankly. you know, we've had programs that we looked and started and decided we didn't want to invest there. the ground forces, near space around the ground forces and the army is the focus area for those systems. >> let's go to you know, the structure obviously that you're trying to build is a resilient structure that has all sorts of layer,s there are those that say the space piece is particularly vulnerable in our architecture and how do you, what are some of the things you're going to have to do differently to safeguard and ensure that your entire system is even more resilient than, that is really resilient if you really need it especially if you have the space piece denied. >> there's work in that arena.

first is the communications network because you have to make sure you can get the data from the systems, so making sure you have resilient communication networks so the data can flow where it needs to flow is absolutely critical and again there's efforts with respect to space protection and how we improve the survivability of the systems. that's ongoing work. >> and space awareness is a big piece. >> space situational awareness is critical. investments made in that arena and space protection in the various platforms all ongoing o to ensure that layerer. >> each rpa piloted aircraft combat air patrol has 190 personnel associated with it, and the term unmanned is a good thing. there have been a lot of efforts to try to lean that. how much people can you take out of this equation given that it has become a manpowerred intensive enterprise. >> we are looking at that. for example, the next generation of the control system will allow us to do more

multiaircraft control and so that starts to reduce the number of people you have. we're looking at things like auto takeoff and auto landing. launch and recover element, you can start to reduce that. i don't want to give you percentages but as we use technology to improve the capabilities, we will drive down the numbers in terms of what we require to operate the rpas. >> you have a large appetite for folks to operate the systems, pilots to operate the systems. some folks have said the attracting of the aviators has been a challenge because the pro motion rate has been lower. congress has asked for an explanation, why the difference between the two communities in terms of advancement progress. >> we to do the work in terms of looking at the data. certainly i will tell you we've been in a surge mode with rpa pilots really over the last 5 to 7 years because of the tremendous demand signal that

we're getting from the combatant commanders. and we've had to keep people located at one location, retaining them there, not necessarily allowing them to go to a different assignment. not necessarily allowing them to go off to advanced education in schools, so those are things we're aware of. we recognize in supporting the war we absolutely had to do that, but over the last year as you may know, we kind of took a pause in terms of our growth rate on the combat air patrol numbers and that has allowed us to start to get healthy in terms of our personnel, our pilots, our trainers: now we can get them into more of a normal cycle. >> you were forging an entirely new career field. >> right. so i mean, supporting the war, creating this capability forced us to do that. we recognize that. we're getting into a more normalized process. >> and just briefly if i can ask you've said that you actually need 300 more bodies to track the space debris. how big of a progress is space

debris. >> it's absolutely a concern. you can get cascading effects for example when the chinese did the antisatellite work, that can hit other things and create other debris. tracking that, understanding that and trying to do something about that will be critical to our future. >> sir, thanks very much for joining us. >> absolutely. coming up,

unemployment ranks as one of the most critical issues facing american military personnel as the war in afghanistan comes to a close.

the unemployment rate for veterans from the iraq and afghanistan wars is as much as double for civilians of the same age. many programs aim to solve the problem and one of the newest and perhaps most intriguing is the s.a.p.'s veterans to work program to get high paying high- tech jobs in the field. diane fanelli is the vice president of solutions at s.a.p. america and she joins us now. >> thank you, thanks for having me here. >> how did the program come about? why did you decide this was the skill you remember going to focus on -- you were going to focus on? >> first of all, s.a.p. has tremendous opportunities for growth in the area. things with with technology and memory. mobile and analytics. we recognize there's a huge shortage of trained consul talents in the marketplace. so looking at this great population of veterans returning back, we said huh. what if we could give them the

training and certifications and actually leverage them to solve a business issue that we have? >> so what are the skills that you're offering? what are some of the ways that you're helping these veterans out? >> yeah so the first part is the curriculum is really focused in on our really high -- high fast paced solutions that we see in the market not just today. but for the next five years. so this is you know, seeding the future if you want to look at it like that and it's around data base and technology and things in memory. it is around mobile applications which everyone and everywhere is mobile. >> increasingly so. >> absolutely. and then the last piece is about analytics. how do you understand it? we then work the program which says we are going to offer in the first year, 1,000 scholarships to veterans that qualify and we have an easy qualification process thawier worked with our partner -- that we've worked with our partner yo staffing and that you come in and veterans are go on the

website and register and you know fill out a questionnaire and then see if they qualify for a scholarship to take these classes. >> okay and so -- you have classroom instruction and some of it online. i mean veterans obviously need a lot of flexibility? >> correct. so we -- we recognize that they do need flexibility. many of the veterans have day jobs or they're working at night and they need to have you know some options, they're inclassroom training and then also training online and they can do it self-paced or instructor led. >> roughly how long will the certification process take? >> the classes themselves go anywhere from three weeks to eight weeks. and they choose which area that they want to focus. and then you know they go through take the classes and then they have to do the certification process but that can usually take you know if they want to do it right away it's very easy. usually takes a day or so but they have up to four weeks to do the online test.

>> how many folks in the program now? >> we just launched this six weeks ago and 115 have already taken classes and we now have 300 that are going through the application process to find out for future classes. >> and how -- how large do you think the program can become ultimately? >> well, our goal right when i did the business case to get this approved and everything like that was to train 1,000 in the first year. >> right. >> we're going to start and do it right and get the bugs out. and then next year we're going to train 5,000. and then the subsequent two years after that we see 7500 a year. so over four years we're talking 21,000 veterans. >> that's fantastic and guys can have several certifications they don't have to do just one? >> nope they can have several. and it makes them more marketable and gives them the skills to really help -- continue to develop. >> you're also doing job placement for them also as they're coming out of the training program. >> correct you know s.a.p. great ecosystem that we have. what we've done is we've worked

with a partner yo staffing. and so they're helping us in the front end you know, identify the right people make sure they qualify. put them you know put them through the application process. and then on the back end, what we've done is yo is going to help place them. and we already have commitments from our partners so accenture, ibm who actually have veterans to work programs themselves in s.a.p. and they want to take the people into the program. >> diane, thank you for excuse me, sir i'm gonna have to ask you to power down your little word game. i think your friends will understand. oh no, it's actually my geico app...see? ...i just uh paid my bill. did you really? from the plane? yeah, i can manage my policy, get roadside assistance, pretty much access geico 24/7. sounds a little too good to be true sir.

i'll believe that when pigs fly. ok, did she seriously just say that? geico. just click away with our free mobile app.

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insurgents from seizing control over the north african control. before the un approved the mission, they struck at al- qaeda leaders, aside from fighters and helicopters paris plans to deploy 2500 troops and armored vehicles to join 300 african soldiers from support from european allies and america. this continues the international battle that has spanned from afghanistan to iraq to yemen, somalia, the philippines and elsewhere. following frances raid on mali they seized a gas facility and more than a hundred hostages. and to stop algiers from helping france. french president warns mali will be a long and difficult mission as with any inurgency especially in a nation size of texas. careful deliberation is required. and the blood will be in vein if al chi cofran cando it aloni

must not be allo

in the innovation race, as europe falling behind the u.s. and asia? two venture capitalists say no. i'm eric pierce, welcome to "biocentury this week". your trusted source for biotechnology source and