USAF to Use New ISR System for Warfighters

The US Air Force (USAF) is to use a new intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) system developed by Raytheon as the USAF has completed evaluation of the upgraded distributed common ground system (DCGS) at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

DCGS is a family of ground station intelligence information sharing platforms that supports a range of ISR systems including military satellite systems, and manned and unmanned aircraft.

The web-enabled DCGS version will enable the USAF to access shared ISR data and applications in a network-centric environment, increasing mission capability as well as capacity.

The network-centric upgrade to DCGS at Ramstein Air Base will enable seamless, real-time, multi-agency intelligence sharing and collaboration.

Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems deputy director of tactical intelligence systems Mark Kipphut said the USAF ran regular missions using the upgraded DCGS baseline over several weeks and concluded it was ready to use for intelligence tasking, processing, exploitation and dissemination.

“We expect the system at Hickam Air Force Base to become operational early next year, which will provide warfighters actionable intelligence, regardless of its source, in near real time,” he added.