U.K. adapts to DCGS

Published 30 June 2008

The U.S. military has been using Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) for a while now to provide a more accurate, timely understanding of adversaries and their actions; U.K. adapts the U.S. system to its own needs

Raytheon has demonstrated the potential to employ a U.K. adaptation of the U.S.-deployed Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) to provide a more accurate, timely understanding of adversaries and their actions. The demonstration took place during the 2008 Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration earlier this month in Portsmouth. The Raytheon team used technologies, including DCGS and the DCGS Integration Backbone (DIB), to integrate existing applications, databases, and shared services from diverse intelligence suppliers and users providing U.K. forces with network-enabled solutions. This will give the U.K. military the ability to discover and catalogue information from otherwise disconnected systems or “hubs” of intelligence information. Additionally, Raytheon demonstrated DCGS software tools that let users organize, exploit and disseminate intelligence information in a way similar to internet operations. The result will be a U.K. virtual knowledge base that provides commanders with a more complete instantaneous picture of enemy activities. ‘The success of this demonstration is a significant achievement for Raytheon Systems and our partner, the U.K. Ministry of Defense,” said Brian McKeon, chief executive, Raytheon Systems. “‘We have leveraged a major U.S. investment in DCGS tools to provide significant new net-enabled intelligence capability by rapidly integrating existing U.K. sources of information and applications.’

The DIB is said to use open, international standards and capabilities commonly found outside the military community, such as in banking or transportation. The DIB provides core services and portal capabilities that allow the community of previously isolated users and systems to work together regardless of their location.