The military services and defense agencies, such as the National Security Agency and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, collect and use intelligence data—either in the form of photographic, radar, or infrared images or electronic signals—to better understand and react to an adversary’s actions and intentions. This data can come from aircraft like the U-2 or Global Hawk or satellites or other ground, air, sea, or spaced- based equipment. The sensors that collect this data are linked to ground- surface-based processing systems that collect, analyze, and disseminate it to other intelligence processing facilities and to combat forces. (See figures 1 and 2.) These systems can be large or small, fixed, mobile, or transportable. For example, the Air Force operates several large, fixed systems that provide extensive analysis capability well beyond combat activities. By contrast, the Army and Marine Corps operate smaller, mobile intelligence systems that travel with and operate near combat forces. A key problem facing DOD is that these systems do not always work together effectively, thereby slowing down the time it takes to collect data and analyze and disseminate it sometimes by hours or even days, though DOD reports that timing has improved in more recent military operations. At times, some systems cannot easily exchange information because they were not designed to be compatible and must work through technical patches to transmit and receive data. In other cases, the systems are not connected at all. Compounding this problem is the fact that each service has its own command, control, and communications structure that present barriers to interoperability. Among the efforts DOD has underway to improve interoperability is the migration to a family of overarching ground-surface systems, based on the best systems already deployed and future systems. DCGS will not only connect individual systems but also enable these systems to merge intelligence information from multiple sources. The first phase of the migration effort will focus on connecting existing systems belonging to the military services—so that each service has an interoperable “family” of systems. The second phase will focus on interconnecting the families of systems so that joint and combined forces can have an unprecedented, common view of the battlefield. DOD’s Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence is leading this effort. Successfully building a compatible ground-surface system is extremely challenging. First, DOD is facing a significant technical challenge. The ground-surface-based systems must not only have compatible electronic connections, but also compatible data transfer rates and data formats and vocabularies. At the same time it modifies systems, DOD must protect sensitive and classified data and be able to make fixes to one system without negatively affecting others. All of these tasks will be difficult to achieve given that the systems currently operated were designed by the individual services with their own requirements in mind and that they still own the systems. Second, sufficient communications capacity (e.g., bandwidth) must exist to transmit large amounts of data. DOD is still in the early stages of adding this capacity through its bandwidth expansion program. Third, DOD must have enough qualified people to analyze and exploit the large volumes of data modern sensors are capable of collecting. Lastly, DOD must still address interoperability barriers that stretch well beyond technical and human capital enhancements. For example, the services may have operating procedures and processes that simply preclude them from sharing data with other services and components, or they may have inconsistent security procedures. Formulating and following common processes and procedures will be difficult since the services have historically been reluctant to do so. Given the multi-billion-dollar commitment and many technical and operational challenges with the migration initiative, it is critical that DOD have effective plans to guide and manage system development. These would include such things as a comprehensive architecture, migration plan, and investment strategy. However, even though it initiated DCGS in 1998 and is fielding new intelligence systems, DOD is still in the beginning stages of this planning. It is now working on an enterprise architecture, a high level concept of operations for the processing of intelligence information, and an overarching test plan, and it expects these to be done by July 2003. DOD has not yet focused on an investment strategy or on a migration plan that would set a target date for completing the migration and outline activities for meeting that date. By fielding systems without completing these plans, DOD is increasing the risk that DCGS systems will not share data as quickly as needed by the warfighter. Successfully moving toward an interoperable family of ground-surface- based processing systems for intelligence data is a difficult endeavor for DOD. The systems now in place are managed by many different entities within DOD. They are involved in a wide range of military operations and installed on a broad array of equipment. At the same time, they need to be made to be compatible and interoperable. DOD’s migration must also fit in with long-term goals for achieving information superiority over the enemy. Several elements are particularly critical to successfully addressing these challenges. They include an enterprise architecture, or blueprint, to define the current and target environment for ground-based processing systems; a road map, or migration plan to define how DOD will get to the target environment and track its progress in doing so; and an investment strategy to ensure adequate resources are provided toward the migration. Each of these elements is described in the following discussions. Enterprise architecture. Enterprise architectures systematically and completely define an organization’s current (baseline) or desired (target) environment. They do so by providing a clear and comprehensive picture of a mission area—both in logical (e.g., operations, functions, and information flows) terms and technical (e.g., software, hardware, and communications) terms. If defined properly, enterprise architectures can assist in optimizing interdependencies and interrelationships among an organization’s operations and the underlying technology supporting these operations. Our experience with federal agencies has shown that attempting to define and build systems without first completing an architecture often results in systems that are duplicative, not well integrated, and unnecessarily costly to maintain and interface, and do not optimize mission performance. DOD also recognizes the importance of enterprise architectures and developed a framework known as the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Architecture Framework for its components to use in guiding efforts similar to DCGS. DOD’s acquisition guidance also requires the use of architectures to characterize interrelationships and interactions between U.S., allied, and coalition systems. Migration plan or road map. Given the size and complexity of DCGS, it is important that the migration be planned in convenient, manageable increments to accommodate DOD’s capacity to handle change. At a minimum, a plan would lay out current system capabilities, desired capabilities, and specific initiatives, programs, projects, and schedules intended to get DOD and the services to that vision. It would also define measures for tracking progress, such as testing timeliness and the status of modifications, roles and responsibilities for key activities, and mechanisms for enforcing compliance with the migration plan and ensuring that systems conform to technical and data standards defined by the architecture. Such plans, or road maps, are often developed as part of an enterprise architecture. Investment strategy. To ensure the migration is successfully implemented, it is important to know what funds are available—for the initial phases of migration, for interoperability testing, and for transition to the target architecture. It is important as well to know what constraints or gaps need to be addressed. By achieving better visibility over resources, DOD can take steps needed to analyze its migration investment as well as funding alternatives. DOD is in the process of developing an architecture for DCGS. It expects the architecture to be completed by July 2003. As recommended by DOD’s C4ISR Architecture Framework, the architecture will include a (1) baseline, or as-is, architecture and (2) a target, or to-be, architecture. The architecture will also include a high-level concept of operations. The architecture will to also reflect DOD’s future plans to develop a web-based intelligence information network. This network would substantially change how intelligence information is collected and analyzed and could therefore substantially change DOD’s requirements for DCGS. Currently, ground-surface-based systems process intelligence data and then disseminate processed data to select users. Under the new approach, unprocessed data would be posted on a Web-based network; leaving a larger range of users to decide which data they want to process and use. DOD has started implementing its plans for this new network but does not envision fully implementing it until 2010-2015. In addition, DOD has created a DCGS Council comprised of integrated product teams to oversee the migration. A team exists for each type of intelligence (imagery, signals, measurement, and signature); test and evaluation; and infrastructure and working groups to study specific issues. In tandem with the architecture, DOD has also issued a capstone requirements document for the migration effort. This document references top-level requirements and standards, such as the Joint Technical Architecture with which all systems must comply. DOD is also developing an overarching test plan called the Capstone Test and Evaluation Master Plan, which will define standards, test processes, test resources, and responsibilities of the services for demonstrating that the systems can work together and an operational concept for processing intelligence information. An enterprise architecture and overarching test plan should help ensure that the ground-surface-based processing systems selected for migration will be interoperable and that they will help to achieve DOD’s broader goals for its intelligence operations. But there are gaps in DOD’s planning that raise risks that the migration will not be adequately funded and managed. First, the planning process itself has been slower than DOD officials anticipated. By the time DOD expects to complete its architecture and testing plan, it will have been proceeding with its migration initiative for 4 years.