The mobile testbed used by the U.S. Department of Defense to assess new intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) technologies prior to their introduction into an operational environment has been modernized by Lockheed Martin. The Distributed Common Ground/Surface System-Imagery (DCGS-I) Testbed, which is used to integrate new ISR capabilities into the DCGS environment, has been upgraded to foster a more seamless transition to operations.

DCGS is a global enterprise network that provides users with real-time access to time-sensitive, actionable intelligence gathered by manned and unmanned ISR platforms.

"With the successful completion of the site acceptance test, the DCGS-I Testbed is ready to meet the ever-growing needs of our joint user community for conducting timely, real-world test scenarios," said Lt Col Mark Murray, Director, DCGS Multi-Service Execution Team Office (DMO). "This modernization significantly expands its capacity by allowing multiple tests to be conducted simultaneously."

Following the recent successful completion of site acceptance testing at the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake, Calif., this mobile, containerized test bed will be used to test new technologies for ISR data gathering and distribution across the DCGS network. The DCGS-I Testbed played a pivotal role in testing capabilities during Enterprise Challenge 2012 and will continue to do so for similar field exercises.

As part of the modernization effort, Lockheed Martin upgraded the DCGS-I software infrastructure to an open, standards-based Clustered, Containerized and Virtual (CCV) architecture that supports multiple baselines, allowing the Testbed to operate two, and potentially up to four separate environments in parallel.

"Since the early 1980s, Lockheed Martin has been deeply embedded in the DCGS community," said Jim Quinn, Vice President for C4ISR Systems with Lockheed Martin IS and GS-Defense. "We remain committed to helping the DoD modernize their ISR architecture and expose DCGS-I's capabilities to as many users as our customer desires."

The DCGS-I Testbed offers an empowering capability for contractors, research and programs of record to integrate ISR capability in a setting that verifies standards and demonstrates mission utility. DCGS-I contains the capability to establish a line of sight or SATCOM data link to manned and unmanned intelligence platforms. Once the data link is established, DCGS-I can ingest various data types and test the ability to successfully process, disseminate, and/or federate that data.

DCGS-I also provides up to five stations which may be configured for exploitation, monitoring, or analysis. Migrating the Testbed to a service-oriented architecture improves these sensor capabilities and enhances interoperability in compliance with DoD direction.