System Networking At Exercise Empire Challenge 2009
August 20, 2009
CHINA LAKE, Calif. - Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) successfully demonstrated a quantum leap in the connectivity and interoperability of emerging Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) systems at Exercise Empire Challenge 2009 (EC09).
Premier among these systems was the Northrop Grumman-led
Industry Team's DCGS-Army Mobile Basic, which was instrumental in
demonstrating how a tactical-level, forward-deployed system can access
both structured and unstructured data while making multi-intelligence
(multi-INT) processed data universally available and accessible.
Accessing and exposing multi-INT data is a landmark achievement
due to the traditional stove-pipe arrangements in handling
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data and the
long-term complexity inherent in ensuring that data from a wide variety
of sources are accessible rapidly to a wide variety of users. DCGS-A
Mobile Basic and its internal Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
software construct performed well in the constant receipt of data and
daily query and exchange of data between the numerous systems,
confirming the Army's objective to operate within a net-centric
environment.
"Federating the use of multi-INT data across DCGS systems
successfully demonstrates DCGS-A Mobile Basic's value in providing
mission-critical ISR data to users at the tactical frontier," said
Joseph J. Ensor, vice president and general manager of Northrop
Grumman's Space and ISR Systems Division. "Its performance at Empire
Challenge proves that it is a key operating element of our nation's
defense."
Exercise Empire Challenge, hosted by the United States Joint
Forces Command at the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake, is the
annual focused event for validating ISR systems with objectives
centering on joint and coalition warfighter requirements.
The Northrop Grumman-led Industry Team (including General
Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, SAIC and Overwatch Corp.) developed and
operated DCGS-A Mobile Basic as the Army's emerging singular multi-INT
tactical processing, analysis and exploitation system. DCGS-A Mobile
Basic demonstrated how DCGS-A and other DCGS systems and configurations
can interoperate using the DCGS Integration Backbone (DIB), advancing
the state of ISR interoperability within the Department of Defense and
the Intelligence Community.
Throughout the exercise, DCGS-A Mobile Basic was key in
ingesting, exploiting and publishing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT)
Full Motion Video/Moving Target Indicator data, signals intelligence
(SIGINT) data, and weather data using a combination of the DIB/Network
Enterprise and organic antennas. Specifically, data was acquired by
DCGS-A Mobile Basic by use of its Joint Tactical Terminal (JTT)
servicing the Integrated Broadcast Service and a Tactical-Very Small
Aperture Terminal (T-VSAT) in receiving broadcast weather data.
Additionally, DCGS-A Mobile Basic successfully interoperated
with the DCGS-A Mobile Basic-Enabled Joint STARS Common Ground Station
(DE-CGS) and elements of Northrop Grumman's DCGS-Navy system at
Patuxent River Naval Air Station. A derivative Army framework is
inherent in a companion system called DCGS-Intelligence Community
(DCGS-IC). Developed by Northrop Grumman, DCGS-IC also successfully
participated in EC09, federating with systems on operational networks.
DCGS-A Mobile Basic operated at EC09 with its newly integrated
array of up-armored mission vehicles, commodity off-the-shelf servers,
SOA-based software architecture and "common" software applications,
tools and data services as a modern ISR system capable of addressing
today's and tomorrow's threats and tactics. Collectively, these
capabilities constitute the essence of DCGS-A Mobile Basic's design for
forward-deployed, on-site, multi-INT processing, analysis and
exploitation, all destined for near-term implementation within the
Army's fielded Brigade Combat Teams.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security
company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products,
and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems,
shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial
customers worldwide.
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