The British Royal Air Force has a new intelligence aircraft, the Sentinel R1, that's part of the Astor radar ground surveillance system.

The radar's resolution is officially described at under one meter, but aerospace specialists say it is at least on par with the U-2's acuity of well under a foot – and probably just a few inches.

The aircraft is small, fast, can do some things better than the U.S. E-8 Joint Stars, and it's going to Afghanistan soon.

Increasingly, U.S. officials want a piece of the action. Asked if the technology on Astor could track a walking man on a cloudy day, the head of the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Vice Adm. Robert Murrett, paused, expressed familiarity with the Astor program, and then said: "Yes. As time goes on an increasing share of our collection capability will be less conventional. It will be less electro-optical, black and white, non-time-sensitive imagery. A much larger part of our mission set [as intelligence analysts] will be an array of five or six phenomenologies that can do many things like penetrate clouds [and underground]."

"Radar imagery is becoming more precise all the time," Murrett adds. "I think I can say the difference between what can be seen with radar imagery and the electro-optical imagery has narrowed by advances in technology. Radar data has advantages for analyses that you can't get elsewhere."

Future exploitation of the radar image will involve hyperspectral slicing of the radar return to identify targets and light or laser radar imaging to define the shape, location and altitude of a target, the NGA director says.

"We have a broad set of international relationships that have to do with the exchange of data," Murrett says. "It's typically handled in bilateral intelligence channels. The important point is that we are actively engaged with all the services making sure we can get the data we need from our foreign counterparts. The ways that we can torture pixels are truly remarkable. We take advantage of cutting-edge technology every single day no matter where it is."

From the Sentinel's operational altitude, the radar's range will be about 180-200 nautical miles. More importantly for the relatively small three-person mission crew, the system offers automated in-air retasking, motion analysis tools, correlation of radar and terrain data, and fusion of intelligence from multiple sources, as well as a wide range of intelligence exploitation tools and both broad- and narrow-band communications links. The ground segment ensures the aircraft is maneuvered into the right position to deliver the data needed by ground commanders.

The Royal Air Force's (RAF) ongoing research includes networking Astor's radar products with the intelligence from the Nimrod R1, the RAF's renowned signals and communications intelligence aircraft, and a range of new unmanned aircraft built for both reconnaissance and strike that include Predator, Reaper and Watchkeeper. It also will involve solving the knotty, long-term issue of sharing bandwidth with your allies.

"GMTI will be an important mission set for our partners and us," Murrett said during a Washington interview Oct. 1. "We need the overarching [networking and real-time exchange of intelligence] and we're as close to the U.K. as anyone."