Army Intelligence System Pulled From Key Test by Ken Dilanian, Associated Press
Army officials have withdrawn their intelligence network from a major testing exercise this fall because of software glitches, in the latest setback for the troubled system.
The decision, laid out in a July 15 memorandum obtained by The Associated Press, stands in contrast to the Army's upbeat public statements about the Distributed Common Ground System.
DCGS-A (pronounced Dee-Sigs-Ay) is a network of software, sensors and databases that is intended to allow troops to process and integrate intelligence from a variety of sources, from electronic intercepts to overhead imagery to spy reports, but has been prone to crashes…
Comments
This is the second S&S article on DCGS-A as then I have stated Textron produced a dud in U.S. Army's All Source Analysis System – Light (ASAS-L) which magically became then DCGS-A and along the way the link analysis tool Axis Pro the Army analysts had to use was from Textron because the argument was it would tie into DCGS-A.
The article indicated DCGS-A is a few years old but it came into the force in early 2005 so it is nine years old and still has never worked just as the intel troops hated and never really used ASAS-L and Axis Pro could never come close to Palantir another link analysis tool but did not link into the DCGS-A system.
The core question is who earned additional money for dragging on this disaster as it did not work in 2005 and it still does not work and Textron has literally made millions on it and a lot of ex military went into the three programs. And all the while the money kept flowing when Textron said improvements and changes were on the way.
The next IT program the Army should kill and ask the same questions is the Command Post of the Future (CPOF) which was never fully implemented because the Defense Contractor wanted to much money and only recently have units started getting the required numbers they should have had in 2006.