"The new (old) Army Intelligence system DCGS-A" Topic
9 Posts
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MarescialloDiCampo | 08 Aug 2014 7:20 a.m. PST |
DCGS-A (Distributed Common Ground System – Army) has cost 4 billion to produce a system that does not work. It has not deployed in combat successfully once. It has been deployed and set aside while we used other systems (2012). Current reports indicate that the Army Brass wants to throw more money at it regardless of the fact that even an Army report cited it as a failure. In April 2014, in a training environment DCGS-A crashed 6 times in 10 days twice for over two hours, once catastrophically for a day. In July Army supposedly pulled it from upcoming training. The system is a train wreck and Army Generals like it. (Generals don't use it. It is for Intel analysts that have to struggle with it and while deployed – they use other systems) link link link link |
Dn Jackson | 08 Aug 2014 9:25 a.m. PST |
I'm always a little leery of stories like this. "Experts say newest military system sucks…" I know nothing about this system and it may be the worst thing out there ever. However, I remember when certain Congressmen were trying to defund the Tomahawk missile system because it didn't work and was a massive waste of money. Same thing with the B1, aircraft carriers, and others. |
Murphy | 08 Aug 2014 12:04 p.m. PST |
Back in the early 90's when I was the S2 NCOIC of a ACR Ground Squadron, we fielded the MCS system…large amounts of what seemed to be 1970's era computer 'stuff" that was supposed to "link" all the TOCs to provide real world intelligence. Most of the time we found out that it took 2 times a long to set up and get working as just getting the information from an intsum sent over a secure radio…. Plus they forgot to train replacement personnel on how to set it up and operate it…. So three years later when I came back to the same unit…they were essentially just carting this stuff around because "no one knew what it was or how to use it"…and most of the pieces weren't there anyways… This comes as no surprise to me. |
Zagloba | 08 Aug 2014 1:34 p.m. PST |
It's a truism of software development that the likelihood of project failure increases dramatically as the size of a project increases. DoD acquisition, however, has such high overhead and fixed operating costs that projects have to be as large as possible. Until this changes pretty much every DoD/govt software project is doomed. Rich |
Weasel | 08 Aug 2014 2:17 p.m. PST |
I've come to the conclusion that these things are essentially just employment and economic stimulus programs. If it had actually worked, that'd have been far worse, as there'd no longer be a need to pay contractors billions of dollars to fix it. |
Zagloba | 08 Aug 2014 2:32 p.m. PST |
I don't disagree, as long as you remember that a large chunk of the price tag is funneled back to the govt in addition to what the contractors get. Rich |
Sundance | 08 Aug 2014 4:34 p.m. PST |
I have not used the system myself, but many of my coworkers have. Yes, it crashes frequently and it is very slow because updates are overlaid on the older versions, rather than removing the older versions, so when the program is running, the computer doesn't know what to do with the older (not-in-use) software. It is also very awkward to use (NOT user friendly) – there is nothing intuitive about it, and the operator's manual doesn't clearly explain how to do things on it. |
Legion 4 | 10 Aug 2014 11:47 a.m. PST |
Well I'm glad our tax dollars were put to such good use … |
MarescialloDiCampo | 12 Aug 2014 1:46 p.m. PST |
The printed operators manual is almost 900 pages (don't print it) When you have all the icons up – you may have about 50 of them across the page. But never ever open the Geo application when the others are up – instant death. |
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