COL Robert Collins is project manager for the Army's Distributed Common Ground System, a position he assumed June 2014. Previously he was product manager for Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increments 2 and 3.
DCGS-A is the Army's primary system for intelligence processing, analysis and dissemination, and its managers are working to improve the system by uncovering and refreshing the technology with best-of-breed capabilities from industry. In late 2014, the Army issued a second request for information for DCGS-A Increment 2, seeking industry feedback on cloud computing, ease-of-use initiatives, big data analytics, data fusion and pattern analysis, defensive and offensive cyber operations, sensor management and on-the-move operations.
Collins spoke with C4ISR & Networks Editor Barry Rosenberg.
With support of the war fighter a given, what's at the top of your to-do list?
COLLINS: The Army has recently released our new Army operating concept. We are now a force that is globally engaged and regionally aligned. The No. 1 priority is achieving situational understanding. A critical component of that is intelligence, access to intelligence and intelligence analysis, which is a core element of the DCGS program. We live in times where we have a very complex and turbulent environment. The DCGS program and the intelligence that it provides are absolutely more critical than ever for our Army to do its mission.
I have three primary priorities. One is supporting our soldiers that are deployed across the globe, and DCGS is doing that today. Second, DCGS Increment 1 Release 2 recently completed some developmental testing and is getting ready for an operational test at NIE 15.2, so the associated preparations, risk reduction, planning and coordination to get ready for that test is my second priority. Third, given this complex environment and all that industry has to offer, we're moving forward on DCGS Increment 2.
It is an opportunity for us to consider how we can best optimize our intelligence analysis program, take advantage of what industry has to offer, and look at a new teaming approach to deliver that capability moving forward. I'm interested in tactical cloud implementation, high-performance computing, big data, and things that we can use in IT equipment automation to help facilitate our soldiers in military decision making, planning and intelligence. We don't do intelligence for the sake of just creating intelligence. We do it to enable operational commanders to perform mission command and make timely decisions on the battlefield.
What is the current status of DCGS in the field, how is it being used and where is it being used?
COLLINS: DCGS Increment 1 Release 1 is fielded to the Army and is used across the globe. It was used by the 101st as they deployed to West Africa for the Ebola mission. DCGS Increment 1 Release 2 just completed developmental testing at Fort Huachuca. We fielded that to 2nd Brigade 1st Armored Division at NIE 15.1. That will complete testing at NIE 15.2 in May 2015.
We're currently in the initial planning stages for DCGS Increment 2. We've got requirement documents for the CDD [Capability Development Document] and JROC [Joint Requirements Oversight Council] staffing, (and we expect approval shortly). We've started a series of requests for information [RFI] with industry. We're planning to do three; we've completed two, RFI 1 and RFI 2.
What are you looking to learn in the RFIs?
COLLINS: RFI 1 was a broad-market check for technical interest, thoughts on management approach and contract approach, and potential risk areas. Incentives are one of the things in which I'm interested. How can we work with industry so that we have a win-win for government and industry, and incentivize the types of activities we want?
We're continuing that thread with RFI 2, with a focus on small business. We need to explore what their involvement could be. And then RFI 3 will tie up any additional information we need so that we can put the draft RFP out on the street.
With Increment 2, please go into more detail on your plan for greater industry involvement and technology refresh as you go forward.
COLLINS: I want to make sure that everyone understands that we've had a significant industry involvement in Increment 1. Certainly no surprise the government was more in the systems integration role. Moving forward to Increment 2, we've kind of wiped the slate clean. We're asking industry, 'given the intelligence environment that we have, given the technologies, given the funding stream, given that we'll all continue to deal with an incremental delivery, what are some of your thoughts on how we can team with you?'
I think there are multiple models that we can engage with industry. Some of the big areas that we're interested in are: the integration of the data, the analytics piece and the algorithms that work with the data, and the visualization piece. Those are the big three areas.
The visualization piece is something I monitor closely. We've gotten a lot of feedback from troops over the years. I look at addressing ease of use and human factors as a journey; that's something that we have improved over time. We need to continue working on visualization as we move forward, and industry has a lot of ideas on how we can do that.
You came into the job knowing about the discussions around the company Palantir and their ability to analyze and exploit data. What are your thoughts on the functionality of Palantir software and whether it might one day be integrated into DCGS?
COLLINS: The good thing about me is I'm a new guy, and so I'm actually excited. We've got the Inc 2 RFI out. We've asked for the industry's feedback. In fact, at AUSA [in October 2014] we met with some 30 industry partners. We've got 80-plus booked in the next quarter to meet. I'm interested to meet with each and every one. Palantir offers some phenomenal solutions sets. And so I encourage, invite and plan to discuss with them any opportunities that we've got in order to do the best we can for the war fighter, and for DCGS-A.
Tell me how DCGS-A is incorporating human intelligence into the system, such as through the Counterintelligence & Human Intelligence Automated Reporting and Collection System program.
COLLINS: DCGS ingests all of this data. Some of the data that's really critical is human intelligence. We've seen from recent real-world activities the criticality of human intelligence. So that's a component. We're also getting involved in a lot of complex and foreign arenas that require language translators, and so the question is, 'how can we best leverage automation to translate those various dialects and languages even in our pivot to Asia?' For that we have another program called the Machine Foreign Language Translation system.
So, I encourage folks to understand that DCGS isn't just a laptop. It's a system of systems. It includes fixed sites. It includes tactical intel databases deployed around the world, and it also includes the laptop. It includes a lot of stuff to bring that intelligence to soldiers so they can feed that to the operational commander to make decisions.
Tell me about the coordination between Army/Air Force/Navy DCGS program.
COLLINS: We've got a number of quarterly sessions that go on with the other services, and I sit as a co-chair with those team members. One of the services that we watch closely, as I did in WIN-T, is the Marine Corps because there's a lot of commonality between techniques, tactics and procedures, and how we conduct operations. We're also tied in to ICITE [Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise], which is developing some of the emerging intel community standards.
There are things that we can do to share and leverage. That helps from an interoperability perspective and intelligence information flow, and there are also efficiencies that we can gain from software licensing, support, training and other activities. There's a saying, 'make sure the system is born joint.' We're making sure DCGS Increment 2 is born with ICITE in mind, and that we can align and grow that over time.
