SIGINT, COMINT, ELINT
SIGINT, COMINT, ELINT
SIGINT involves collecting intelligence from communications and information systems to help protect troops and military operations, national security, fight terrorism, combat international crime and narcotics, support diplomatic negotiations, support allies, and advance many other important national objectives.
In recent years, one very important tool for SIGINT and ELINT gathering has been unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) such as the Global Hawk and Reaper drones, which are fortified with potent Light and Imaging Detection (LIDAR) and infrared sensors & cameras, as well as synthetic aperture RADAR to collect and send back worthy raw intelligence from the operative environment for exploration and analysis.
SIGINT and ELINT is most often used by military or intelligence agency professionals, who have to deal with messages and data of one or more parties that are gathered using any type of electronic, communications, or foreign instrumentation signals intelligence, irrespective of how the information was conveyed. This could be in the form of written messages, verbal communications, data from weapons systems or radar, etc.
Today’s high-performance SIGINT, COMINT and ELINT systems require massive processing power to detect, identify, and classify an enormous number of highly complex signals.