UK adapts to DCGS

Raytheon has demonstrated the potential to employ a

adaptation of the US-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, Hants.

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 UK forces with network-enabled solutions.

This will give the UK 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 organise, exploit and disseminate intelligence information in a way similar to internet operations.

The result will be a UK 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 UK Ministry of Defence,’ said Brian McKeon, chief executive, Raytheon Systems. ‘We have leveraged a major US investment in DCGS tools to provide significant new net-enabled intelligence capability by rapidly integrating existing UK 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.