Article

2012-12-21 Science & Technology

Army rolls out brass to defend anti-IED software

The Army presented two two-star generals and three intelligence specialists Thursday to defend its $2.5 billion battlefield intelligence processor, which has failed operational tests and has been criticized by soldiers as being too slow to analyze the enemy and help find buried bombs in Afghanistan.

In a news conference at the Pentagon, the Army specialists lauded the Defense Common Ground System, an array of computers, servers and programs that is the Armys principal processor of huge amounts of battlefield data.

The Washington Times first reported in July about an internal battle within the Army. Commanders and intelligence officers in Afghanistan complained in messages to Army headquarters about the Defense Common Ground System.

Some asked for permission to buy Palantir, an off-the-shelf software platform that specializes in linking disparate bits of information to form a clear picture of the battlefield.

In some cases, Army officials involved in shielding the Defense Common Ground System from possible budget cuts viewed Palantir as a competitor and worked to shut off the requests.

Posted by tipper 2012-12-21 00:47|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ] Top

#1 Soapbox time in support of the soldier.

I doubt there is an intelligence person beyond the grade of Specialist or buck sergeant who knows how to operate DCGS effectively. Each of the various software programs, such as the old Analyst Notebook (AnB), Query Tree, ARCGIS, and others have specific uses which permit the analyst to produce effective products.

The Digital Common Ground System (DCGS) developers have attempted to take the capabilities of numerous systems (tools) and integrate them into one proprietary, legacy mega tool. DCGS is not user friendly, nor is it cross-system, or cross-service friendly. It is also costly and contractor heavy. Yes, it comes with it's own data storage "brain", but the data is already out there on the cloud anyway. The DCGS "brain" does not share unless you access it thru the DCGS portal.

Palantir on the other hand, can be taught to a lower ranking soldier in an afternoon. It will permit him or her to "word tag" and search thousands of pieces of message traffic and built investigations which create outstanding link-analysis products.

An auto mechanic cannot repair everything on your car with a pair of pliers. Specific tools are required to perform various functions. The Army leadership is wrong about DCGS, but they are too invested in it to back out. Talk to the Marines, or SOF community, or any intelligence analyst. Don't talk to a Colonel or General about a software tool.

Just my two cents worth.

Posted by Besoeker 2012-12-21 01:37|| 2012-12-21 01:37|| Front Page Top

#2 a Colonel or General will need a job after retiring from service, Besoeker.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2012-12-21 04:51|| 2012-12-21 04:51|| Front Page Top

#3 DCGS is not user friendly, nor is it cross-system, or cross-service friendly

Replace DCGS with AHLTA, and you have what military medicine has faced for the past couple of decades.

Posted by Pappy 2012-12-21 10:54|| 2012-12-21 10:54|| Front Page Top

Palantir on the other hand, can be taught to a lower ranking soldier in an afternoon.

Yeah, but the have to put up with Sauron looking over their shoulders.

Posted by Rob Crawford 2012-12-21 11:08|| 2012-12-21 11:08|| Front Page Top

14:09 Grom the Affective
14:04 Super Hose
14:02 Super Hose
13:37 Procopius2k
13:35 Grom the Affective
13:34 Procopius2k
13:27 Grom the Affective
13:21 NN2N1
13:18 Grom the Affective
12:50 Remoteman
12:45 Secret Master
12:24 Matt
12:07 Abu Uluque
12:03 Grom the Affective
11:59 Grom the Affective
11:35 Super Hose
11:33 Super Hose
11:29 Besoeker
11:28 Besoeker
11:28 Super Hose
11:27 Besoeker
11:23 Besoeker
11:22 Grom the Affective
11:20 Super Hose