Distributed Common Ground System

The Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) is a system which produces military intelligence for multiple branches of the American military.

Distributed Common Ground System
TypeComputer system
Inception1994

DCGS Programs

Description

While in U.S. Air Force use, the system produces intelligence collected by the U-2 Dragonlady, RQ-4 Global Hawk, MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1 Predator.[1] The previous system of similar use was the Deployable Ground Station (DGS), which was first deployed in July 1994. Subsequent version of DGS were developed from 1995 through 2009.[1]

Although officially designated a "weapons system", it consists of computer hardware and software connected together in a computer network, devoted to processing and dissemination of information such as images.[2] The 480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing of the Air Combat Command operates and maintains the USAF system.[3]

A plan envisioned in 1998 was to develop interoperable systems for the Army and Navy, in addition to the Air Force.[4] By 2006, version 10.6 was deployed by the Air Force, and a version known as DCGS-A was developed for the Army.[5] After a 2010 report by General Michael T. Flynn, the program was intended to use cloud computing and be as easy to use as an iPad, which soldiers over a few years were commonly using.[6] By April 2011, project manager Colonel Charles Wells announced version 3 of the Army system (code named "Griffin") was being deployed in the US war in Afghanistan.[7] In January 2012, the United States Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center hosted a meeting based on the DCGS-A early experience. It brought together technology providers in the hope of developing more integrated systems using cloud computing with open architectures, compared to previously specialized custom-built systems.[8]

A major contractor was Lockheed Martin, with computers supplied by Silicon Graphics International out of its Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin office.[9] Software known as the Analyst's Notebook, originally developed by i2 Limited, was included in DCGS-A.[10] IBM acquired i2 in 2011.[11]

Some US Army personnel reported using a Palantir Technologies product to improve their ability to predict locations of improvised explosive devices. An April 2012 report recommending further study after initial success. Palantir software was rated easy to use, but did not have the flexibility and wide number of data sources of DCGS-A.[12] In July 2012, Congressman Duncan D. Hunter (from California, the state where Palantir is based) complained of US DoD obstacles to its wider use.[13] Although a limited test in August 2011 by the Test and Evaluation Command had recommended deployment, operation problems of DCGS-A included the baseline system was "not operationally effective" with reboots on average about every 8 hours. A set of improvements was identified in November 2012.[14][15] The press reported some of the shortcomings uncovered by General Genaro Dellarocco in the tests.[16] The ambitious goal of integrating 473 data sources for 75 million reports proved to be challenging, after spending an estimated $2.3 billion on the Army system alone.[4][17]

In May 2013 Politico reported that Palantir lobbyists and some anonymous returning veterans continued to advocate the use of its software, despite its interoperability limits. In particular, members of special forces and US Marines were not required to use the official Army system.[18] Similar stories appeared in other publications, with Army representatives (such as Major General Mary A. Legere) citing the limitations of various systems.[19] Congressman Hunter was a member of the House Armed Services Committee which required a review of the program, after two other members of congress sent an open letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.[20] The Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee included testimony from Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno.[21] The 130th Engineer Brigade (United States) has found the system to be "unstable, slow, not friendly and a major hindrance to operations".[22]

The equivalent system for the United States Navy was planned for initial deployment by 2015, and within a shipboard network called Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) by 2016.[4] Some early testing was announced in 2009 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman.[23]

A portion of the software, a distributed data framework for the DCGS integration backbone (DIB) version 4, was submitted to an open-source software repository of the Codice Foundation on GitHub.[24][25] The framework was new for DIB version 4, replacing the legacy DIB portal with an Ozone Widget Framework interface.[26] It was written in the Java programming language.[27]

DCGS-A

Distributed Common Ground System-Army (DCGS-A) is the United States Army's primary system to post data, process information, and disseminate Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) information about the threat, weather, and terrain to echelons. DCGS-A provides commanders the ability to task battle-space sensors and receive intelligence information from multiple sources.

Promotion

An August 17, 2011, UPI article quoted i2 Chief Executive Officer Robert Griffin who commented on DCGS-A's best-of-breed approach to development. The article detailed the Army contracting with i2 for Analyst's Notebook software. "With its open architecture, Analyst's Notebook supports the Army's strategy to employ and integrate best-of-breed solutions from across the industry to meet the dynamic needs users face in the field on a daily basis."[28]

A February 1, 2012, article in the Army web page quoted Mark Kitz, DCGS-A technical director. DCGS-A "uses the latest in cloud technology to rapidly gather, collaborate and share intelligence data from multiple sources to deliver a common operating picture. DCGS-A is able to rapidly adapt to changing operational environments by leveraging an iterative development model and open architecture allowing for collaboration with multiple government, industry and academic partners."[29]

A July 2012 article in SIGNAL Magazine, monthly publication of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, promoted DCGS-A as taking advantage of technological environments with which young soldiers are familiar.[6] The article quoted the DCGS-A program manager, Col. Charles Wells on the systems benefits. The article also included Lockheed Martin's DCGS-A program manager.[6]

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published an article May 4, 2012, about Wisconsin-located companies helping DCGS-A with cloud computing technology.[30] The article promoted the speed when cloud computing processes intelligence and cost savings by analyzing data in the field.[30]

The U.S. Army's 2011 Posture Statement

The U.S. Army released its 2011 Army Posture Statement March 2. It included a statement on DCGS-A:

“The Distributed Common Ground System-Army (DCGS-A) is the Army's premier intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) enterprise for the tasking of sensors, analysis and processing of data, exploitation of data, and dissemination of intelligence (TPED) across all echelons. It is the Army component of the larger Defense Intelligence Information Enterprise (DI2E) and interoperable with other Service DCGS programs. Under the DI2E framework, USD (I) hopes to provide COCOM Joint Intelligence Operations Centers (JIOCs) capabilities interoperable with DCGS-A through a Cloud/widget approach.[31] DCGS-A connects tactical, operational, and theater-level commanders to hundreds of intelligence and intelligence-related data sources at all classification levels and allows them to focus efforts of the entire ISR community on their information requirements.

Comparisons

Some Ground Commanders who describe DCGS-A as "unwieldy and unreliable, hard to learn and difficult to use," supporting alternative software from Palantir Technologies. Palantir software supports small unit situational awareness, but is not sufficiently funded to support the broader role that DCGS-A fulfills.[32]

Operators

References
  1. "Factsheet, Air Force Distributed Common Ground System". Air Force ISR Agency Public Affairs. December 9, 2011. Archived from the original on October 30, 2012. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  2. Lance Menthe; Amado Cordova; Carl Rhodes; Rachel Costello; Jeffrey Sullivan (February 10, 2012). The Future of Air Force Motion Imagery Exploitation: Lessons from the Commercial World (PDF). pp. 3–4. ISBN 978-0-8330-5964-2. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 9, 2013. Retrieved September 28, 2013. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  3. "Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency". Fact sheet. US Air Force. August 10, 2007. Archived from the original on November 11, 2013. Retrieved September 28, 2013.
  4. Greg Slabodkin (October 1, 2012). "Distributed common ground system comes under fire". Defense Systems Magazine. Archived from the original on October 3, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  5. "Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS)". Defense Update. 2007. Archived from the original on October 22, 2013. Retrieved September 28, 2013.
  6. George I. Seffers (July 2012). "Making Battlefield Intelligence "iPad Easy"". SIGNAL Online. Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. Archived from the original on September 4, 2013. Retrieved September 28, 2013.
  7. Barry Rosenberg (April 4, 2011). "Army harnesses full power of intelligence assets". Defense Systems. Archived from the original on October 3, 2013. Retrieved September 28, 2013.
  8. Kristen Kushiyama (February 1, 2012). "Cloud computing to integrate with current Army system". US Army. Archived from the original on October 2, 2013. Retrieved September 28, 2013.
  9. Rick Barrett. "State companies helping Army with cloud computing". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Archived from the original on October 5, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  10. "Army continues use of i2 software". UPI. August 17, 2011. Archived from the original on December 9, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  11. Joab Jackson (August 31, 2011). "IBM acquiring i2 for criminal mastermind software: The company will use i2's Analyst's Notebook and other products in its own criminal data analysis systems". Info World. Archived from the original on May 25, 2018. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
  12. US Army Operational Test Command (April 5, 2012). "Palantir Operational Assessment Report" (PDF). Wired. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 16, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  13. Rowan Scarborough (July 16, 2012). "Military has to fight to purchase lauded IED buster". The Washington Times. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  14. "Distributed Common Ground System – Army (DCGS-A)" (PDF). United States Army Test and Evaluation Command. December 27, 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 11, 2014. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  15. Director, Operational Test and Evaluation Distributed Common Ground System – Army. (DCGS-A) Increment 1 Release 2. (January 2016) Follow-on Operational Test and Evaluation (FOT&E) Report p.ii "There were no hardware failures during the FOT&E; however, software failures were still a challenge for users. The system required reboots about every 20 hours for users who had heavy workloads such as the fire support analysts and data managers in the BCT Tactical Operations Center (TOC)". p.iii list of recommendations. Tests coordinate with NIE 15.2. p.45: recommendations. Diagrams. Tests were Mar-Jun 2015.
  16. Noah Shachtman (August 8, 2012). "Brain, Damaged: Army Says Its Software Mind Is 'Not Survivable'". Wired Danger Room. Archived from the original on November 15, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  17. Noah Shachtman (November 30, 2012). "No Spy Software Scandal Here, Army Claims". Wired Danger Room. Archived from the original on November 16, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  18. Noah Shachtman (August 1, 2012). "Spy Chief Called Silicon Valley Stooge in Army Software Civil War". Wired Danger Room. Archived from the original on September 25, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  19. Robert Draper (June 19, 2013). "Boondoggle Goes Boom: A demented tale of how the Army actually does business". The New Republic. Archived from the original on November 1, 2013. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
  20. Darrell Issa & Jason Chaffetz (August 1, 2012). "Open Letter to Leon E. Panetta, Secretary, US Department of Defense" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on October 14, 2014. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  21. Austin Wright (May 29, 2013). "The Army's multibillion dollar 'money pit'". Politico. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  22. McCaney, Kevin (7 February 2014). "Army units give thumbs-down to battlefield intelligence system". defensesystems.com. 1105 Media, Inc. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  23. Robert K. Ackerman (December 2009). "Seaborne Intelligence Comes Aboard". SIGNAL Online. Archived from the original on October 14, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  24. David Perera (June 24, 2013). "Major part of DCGS now open source". Fierce Government IT. Archived from the original on September 10, 2013. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
  25. "Codice Foundation". GitHub projects. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
  26. "DCGS Integration Backbone (DIB) v4.0 Overview" (PDF). The DCGS MET Office. March 13, 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 21, 2013. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
  27. "Frequently Asked Questions". Distributed Data Framework. Codice Foundation. Archived from the original on October 20, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
  28. UPI. "Army continues use of i2 software". UPI. Archived from the original on 22 December 2012. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
  29. Kushiyama, Kristen. "Cloud computing to integrate with current Army system". U.S. Army. Archived from the original on 4 October 2012. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
  30. Barrett, Rick (3 May 2012). "State companies helping Army with cloud computing". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  31. "Distributed Common Ground System - Army". What is it?. U.S. Army. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  32. ""No spy software scandal here, Army claims. Wired Aug. 2012"". Archived from the original on 2013-11-16. Retrieved 2019-07-28.
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