Civilians cyber warriors help commandos fight Published Sept. 7, 2007 By Maj. Mark Hedden 1 SOW/IO Aug 10, 2007 -- Tonight's plan is pretty basic. Several fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft will move special operations troops and their supplies inside Iraq and Afghanistan, while gunships support missions over the most hotly-contested cities. The commander gets briefed and as night falls, aircraft begin to launch. To look at the Joint Operations Center, with its plywood walls, laptops, and paper charts, you might not think that this is the nexus of the war's most cutting-edge technology fusion. A call comes through. A TIC - troops in contact - with enemy forces, under heavy fire and in need of air support. The JOC chief takes in all the information, assesses the priority, and checks available assets. He informs the ops director, and they agree to re-task one of the gunships. A civilian with "DOD Civilian" sewn on his DCU's, sits behind his six computers and starts to bring up displays. Airspace is deconflicted, weather and intelligence are checked. Within minutes, gunship aircrews are passed the relevant information, including map and imagery files, and diverted to provide support to the beleaguered forces. On the main screen, the plane's icon changes course and moves across the map. The civilian works with intel, locates a nearby surveillance aircraft, and brings up it's real-time sensor video on a wall display. Coordination that would have been considered impossible just a couple years earlier has now become routine. This civilian is a Mission Information Manager. MIMs are currently assigned to the 1st Special Operations Wing Information Operations Directorate. They are an elite cadre of civilians with information technology expertise and a background in military operations, to "make technology speak tactical." Today, MIMs are the backbone of Air Force Special Operations Command and command and control centers worldwide. They're also the main validation authorities for any and all computer technology requirements for special operations aircraft and operations centers. The first coalition aircraft in theater after the 9/11 attacks were AFSOC aircraft. They were faced with the most daunting task they've ever encountered. Accustomed to controlling just a handful of aircraft at a time, they now had to manage the equivalent of a small country's air force. They stood up a JOC with the standard command and control tools of the day: whiteboards, spreadsheets, and basic flight planning software, with limited verbal communication over satellite communication and radio relay. They got things done, but it was obvious they needed to find a better way. Lessons learned from early stages of Operation Enduring Freedom emphasized the need for a MIM in future conflicts - conflicts that turned out to be just around the corner. Operation Iraqi Freedom marked the first time MIMs were a part of the AFSOC C2 process. The MIMs were able to find programs and tie them all together so that the battlespace could be viewed instantly by the SOF commander. Enemy order of battle, friendly aircraft and ground forces, airspace conflicts, weather, execution checklist, all instantly viewed on no less than five video displays. This real-time war would not be possible without the MIMs. Move over Tom Clancy, the MIMs are in town. The Air Force is talking seriously about creating a Cyber Command. For five, the 1st SOW MIMs have been pioneering and perfecting these same concepts. MIMs have proven to be utterly indispensable to the execution of our combat operations.