Navy moves forward with DCGS-N intell gathering program

The Navy is moving forward with the next version of its Distributed Common Ground System, an intelligence gathering and analysis tool.

DCGS-N is part of the Defense Department’s family of DCGS systems that are used to collect, analyze and distribute intelligence ]on the battlefield.

The best known one is the DCGS-Army, which went through a controversial period when Palantir sued the Army to be allowed to bid on the system with its commercial technology. Palantir won that suit and the Army changed its approach from wanting only a custom-built system to also considering a commercial solution.

Palantir was awarded the contract along with Raytheon and recently won the first competitive task order under DCGS-A.

In a new sources sought notice, the Navy looks like it's trying to avoid the Army’s stumble and is asking for a commercial product. The requirements are restricted because respondents need to register first and then the Navy will send them the details.

But the notice does broadly describe the Navy’s goal for DCGS-N Increment 2 -- shorten targeting timelines and improve information fidelity through “automated aggregation, correlation, fusion and predictive analytics of all source intelligence.” The Navy wants the system to produce predictive situational awareness and earlier identification of threats and intent.

The Navy also wants its technical team to meet with industry to learn about software solutions for both afloat and ashore applications. 

“The ultimate outcome of these meetings is to provide a crosswalk of the solutions’ capabilities to the DCGS-N Inc 2 requirements provided,” the Navy wrote.

The Navy has a long lead time on this and is accepting responses to the notice until Sept. 26.