US Army selects BAE Systems for development of newest DCGS variant

The US Army has selected BAE Systems to provide technological solutions for the newest variant of the service’s Distributed Common Ground Sensor-Army (DCGS-A) battlefield management programme, company officials have announced.

The contract award is one of several army leaders plan to hand out as part of a USD823 million indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity (IDIQ) acquisition vehicle, designed to develop advanced technologies for DCGS-A Capability Drop 2 (CD-2). Industry competitors sent in proposals for DCGA-A CD-2 in August 2019 to the programme manager’s office under US Army’s Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors (IEW&S) directorate, headquartered at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Maryland.

The initial delivery contract awarded to BAE Systems is one of two that service leaders plan to issue, as part of the IDIQ. Testing and evaluation for the CD-2 variant will likely consist of four preliminary assessment events followed by a full operational assessment, according to programme officials.

The early anticipated fielding date for DCGS-A CD-2 is slated for 2021. American software company Palantir beat Raytheon in March 2019 to win the development contract for DCGS-A CD-1.

Utilising a network of ruggedized laptops, capable of remote access in a network restricted or denied environment, the CD-1 version of the battlefield management system enables army intelligence analysts at the battalion level, programme officials at IEW&S said. CD-2, however, expands the system’s CD-1 battalion-level scope and focuses on the DCGS “fusion brains” or the fixed site, intelligence fusion centres that act as the backbone of the entire enterprise.