Getting More Common, Faster:

Lockheed Martin noted Thursday at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., that the early fielding of the Distributed Common Ground System Integration Backbone—the DIB—has enabled users to access data in real-time across three previously autonomous intelligence databases at Langley AFB, Va., Beale AFB, Calif., and a forward location in Europe. Mark Grablin, Lockheed’s director of Defense Department ISR Systems, explained that when common applications such as the imagery product library and imagery exploitation subsystems are integrated into the DIB, “those same shared services you can develop once and use them at any time, so they flow across the various services.” Grablin went on to say that the early fielding plan enables Lockheed to roll DIB in front of the service’s DCGS 10.2 upgrade, which means USAF can begin adapting concepts of operation and training and when 10.2 fields, it will lay on top of DIB, subsuming it. “It’s the same technology, the same capabilities” he said, but this approach reduces risk by helping “10.2 to arrive in a more seamless fashion.” Grablin estimates the first deployment of 10.2 could be as early as October.