The successor of the Real Time Regional Gateway is named Nexus 7 and is now under development at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) [3] At NSA the driving force behind the system was former NSA director Keith B. Alexander, who initiated a massive search for every piece of electronic information that could be found, after the Iraqi road side bombings reached an all-time high in 2005.
[5] Under the secret interception programs that were started right after the September 11 attacks, which were codenamed STELLARWIND, the NSA got access to foreign communications at the switching points where international fiber-optic cables entered the United States.
[2] The RT-RG derived its data from all kinds of sources, like raids, interrogations, and signal intelligence collected from ground sensors, as well as by airborne platforms like the RC-135 Rivet Joint and C-12 Huron aircraft, and SIGINT drones and satellites.
[9] The Real Time Regional Gateway contributed to "breaking up Iraqi insurgent networks and significantly reducing the monthly death toll from improvised explosive devices (IED) by late 2008".
[4] According to journalist and author Shane Harris, the RT-RG was "a rare example of successful collaboration within the byzantine federal bureaucracy" and eventually the key for winning the war in Iraq.