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The United States Army has been looking for companies willing to upgrade its battlefield intelligence sharing system. The Army is willing to award contracts worth anywhere between $3,500 to $800 million to companies that can offer solutions that improve intelligence sharing capabilities for soldiers.
The Army has stated that they are looking for private companies to award contracts for an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity of solutions to upgrade the existing Distributed Common Ground System – Army (DCGS-A).
While the DCGS-A system has been developed incrementally, the Army is looking for smaller and more directed capability upgrades that are focused on specific needs. The goal is to make the system a smarter system.
The system provides Army commanders with analytics providing situational understanding and targeting. The systems use intelligence gathered from several military sources and share it on a platform that is accessible only to authorized military personnel. The system also shares information regarding weather, terrain, and enemy threats.
The DCGS-A system has to be able to evolve and adapt with new warfighting technologies and systems. It has to also be able to visualize the situation and provide situational awareness and the ability to operate in a changing, unpredictable, military environment.
C4isrnet.com reports that the Army plans to award several contracts all varying in length between three to four years.
The Army has been criticized in the past regarding how the time and money it spent developing the DCGS-A system instead of outsourcing it to a company. The complaints came after the system was not capable of distributing data throughout the system quick enough.
