Transformation Progressing For Intelligence Technology Backbone

Signal, Aug 2007 by Gourley, Bob

The Defense Intelligence Agency's efforts are paying off with a more agile global information technology enterprise to meet mission needs.

The U.S. Department of Defense Intelligence Information System has completed phase one of a multiyear effort to transform into a more agile enterprise. This global information technology enterprise, led by the Defense Intelligence Agency, serves both analysts and warfighters and provides the backbone of intelligence technology for the Defense Department, combatant commands, the services and many other elements of the national security community. The transformation effort has enhanced the ability of the entire defense intelligence enterprise to serve the mission needs of the military.

Prior to 2005, broad interoperability policies guided the intelligence information technology activities of the Defense Department, combatant commands and the services. The previous Department of Defense Intelligence Information System (DODIIS) enterprise allowed users to exchange data and meet minimal collaboration requirements, but many challenges remained unaddressed. The earlier system did not allow for agility in fielding enterprisewide capabilities, and only rudimentary abilities existed to recover from potential disasters. All users faced huge challenges in multilevel security and cross-domain access. And analytical tools took years to design and field to the enterprise, in part because of the overall complexity of the environment.

The DODES of today (SIGNAL Magazine, April 2006, page 33) has adopted a new governance model based on industry best practices for enterprise information technology management. This model has enhanced the organization's ability to make key decisions the right way and at the right level in the organization. New processes for command, control and accountability also have been put in place, and new partnerships with industry, academia and other federal organizations have been formed. Improvements in the enterprise's ability to support warfighting requirements already are apparent.

A single, foundational Joint Intelligence Operations Center (JIOC) tech- nology baseline has been established and fielded. This baseline, which is founded on the Global Command and Control System family of systems, leverages infrastructure already in place at all combatant commands, and it networks the JIOCs into a more solid framework for operational data exchange. Processes are in place to tum this initial package of capabilities into an end-to-end architecture that includes service systems such as the Distributed Common Ground Station (DCGS). Now any service DCGS program, including the U.S. Army DCGS and the capabilities formerly known as JIOCIiaq, can access and search across more DODUS data.

New global solutions for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) visualization involving coordinated data feeds from every combatant command have been established and fielded to the Defense JIOC and the U.S. Strategic Command's Joint Functional Component Command for ISR headquarters.

A new secure voice system that leverages voice over Internet protocol has been fielded, providing secure compartmented voice communications to anyone who can enter intelligence community networks. This system connects to the legacy secure telephones of the intelligence community so any organization that can use the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS) can dial into core intelligence production centers. It also includes a directory system that makes it easy to find other users and facilitates collaboration. DODUS engineers designed this capability so that any location that has a JWICS connection, including temporary secure facilities, can have secure, sensitive compartmented information voice communications.

DODIIS engineers instituted and fielded a single global secure grid of desktop video teleconference (VTC) systems that connects people so they can see each other face to face around the globe from their desktops. Most previous desktop VTC systems would work only within a small compound or region. Now users in any combatant command with a desktop VTC system can call any other combatant command or anyone at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Joint Staff Directorate of Intelligence or the service intelligence centers.

The DODIIS is fielding an initial wave of the DODUS Trusted Workstation (DTW), an integrated, high-security solution that provides the most significant enhancement to multilevel security and cross-domain challenges in the history of the community. More than 8,000 of these devices have been fielded already, and at least 17,000 will be deployed by the end of this year. The DTW provides a better way to send all-source intelligence to analysts and a better way to send the results of analysis to the systems that operational decision makers use.

As part of the trusted workstation, the DODIIS is putting JWICS, the Defense Department's secret Internet protocol router network (SIPRNET), Allied Stoneghost and many other domains on the desktops of the department's intelligence users. The precise domains accessed vary from location to location, but any classified domain is a candidate for this method of visualization. This process takes place through a thin client, with the heavy lifting occurring in server rooms. The DTW operates without a need for a separate PC under the desk for each network.