WASHINGTON — The Army has awarded Palantir an $823 million contract to enable an intelligence data fabric and analytics as part of an effort to modernize legacy battlefield intelligence systems, the Army announced Wednesday.
The award is specifically for capability drop 2 for the Distributed Common Ground System and will deliver a data fabric for intelligence across the world. The Army said capability drop 2 software will serve as the base data platform supporting and enabling enterprise intelligence data management and operations.
The Army in recent years has adopted a capability drop approach, incrementally adding software to previous builds to ensure the service is harnessing the latest technological advancements.
This particular program is a next-generation version of the Distributed Common Ground System, which disseminated intelligence data to forces on the battlefield. It’s meant to help the Army be better postured to fight and win against near-peer adversaries.
Palantir will provide users with a globally federated intelligence data fabric and analytics platform spanning multiple security classifications, the company said in a release. The system will enable data integration, correlation, fusion and analytic capabilities.
In future battles, soldiers will need access to timely intelligence collected from an exponential number of sensors as well as national intelligence agencies. This data fabric is meant to create a central repository for that data to be analyzed and shared.
The work builds upon capability drop 1, which was more tactically focused in nature and aimed at providing information to battalion and below units on systems that could be disconnected from a network for extended periods of time.
The Army said this initial delivery order of the contract will include direct work with soldiers for feedback to improve the system and serve soldiers’ needs.
Mark Pomerleau is a reporter for C4ISRNET, covering information warfare and cyberspace.
