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Baltimore MD: A team led by Northrop Grumman has developed and demonstrated technology for users of the U.S. Army's battlefield networks that allows access to actionable intelligence from virtually anywhere in the field. Northrop Grumman and teammates General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and Science Applications International Corp. were chartered by the U.S. Army to integrate multiple, existing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems into a single multi-intelligence system called the Distributed Common Ground System – Army (DCGS-A).
This team is officially named the DCGS-A Industry Team, with Northrop Grumman acting as the system integrator.
The team successfully conducted several DCGS-A, Version 4, Proof of Concept (PoC) demonstrations at Ft. Belvoir, Va.; Ft. Huachuca, Ariz.; and Northrop Grumman laboratory facilities in Baltimore from August through December 2006. These efforts resulted in a new model for moving battlefield data and intelligence in support of tactically deployed combat commanders. The system uses queried/access methodology, and is designed to operate within a distributed-operations, enterprise environment.
Participating systems included the Army's Joint STARS Common Ground System, the Joint STARS Work Station, the Human Domain Work Station, the Digital Terrain Support System, the Integrated Meteorological System, the V3 Joint Intelligence Operations Capability – Iraq (JIOC-I) work suites and selected components of the Navy's DCGS Multi-Intelligence Segment integrated with the DCGS Integration Backbone (DIB).
Data interchange within the PoC was achieved using a combination of a commercially available Enterprise Service Bus and the U.S. Department of Defense DIB. The demonstration adhered to DoD's guidance to remain consistent with DIB standards, be interoperable with existing components and be facilitated by the use of DIB architecture.
The Northrop Grumman-led DCGS-A Industry Team has continued to expand the Army's net-cetric enterprise capability with DCGS-A, Version 4. Previous DCGS versions included the Army's Version 2, Joint Intelligence Operations Capability-Iraq (JIOC-I) and the DCGS-A Version 3, battle command interoperability.
“Our team is committed to designing and delivering the best capabilities for producing actionable intelligence rapidly available to the warfighter,” said Ken Wilson, vice president of C4ISRT Networked Systems for Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems sector.
“Our approach makes the best of the Army's investment in ISR technologies. By working with our government and industry partners, we will continue to integrate 'best of breed' applications and services from multiple sources in an open service-oriented architecture environment.”
