SOCOM developing data fusion contract

The U.S. Special Operations Command is looking for new ways to take in data from a wide range of military and government sources, analyze it and then distribute as needed.

In a new request for information, the Special Operations Command is looking for commercial capabilities to handle what it calls civil information. In this case, civil information comes from a variety of sources including military, academic, historical, political, private sector and trade data. It covers information that ranges from unclassified to secret.

FBO.gov lists the solicitation number as JCIMS, which is also the acronym for the project: Joint Civil Information Management System.

The command is looking for ways to pull disparate information together to improve the “understanding of the operational environment,” according to the RFI. Think of it as data fusion.

The data is structured and unstructured and includes text, pictures, video and geospatial information.

The responses to the RFI are due Aug. 22. Based on the responses, GAO said the next steps might be meetings with potential bidders and one-on-one discussions and demonstrations.

“Such discussions would only be intended to obtain further clarification of potential capability to meet the requirements, including any development and certification risks,” according to the RFI.

They are looking for a standards-based system that also is consistent with National Information Exchange Model.

Some of the features they are looking for include search that can be based on geographical location and keyword as well as semantic attributes. Searches also should include meta data.

The system will need to help with mission planning, reports, surveys, assessments and “change over time” estimates. The system also needs to be useful in tactical environments.

Some of the technical requirements include on-demand analytical tools, global network access, high scalability and the ability to leverage open source.