Defense Technical Information Center

Abstract

The Defense Technical Information Center’s (DTIC) unique mission is to accelerate delivery of capabilities to our warfighters to ensure superiority on today’s battlefields and for the conflicts of tomorrow; provide a robust Science and Technology (S&T) knowledge base to enable research and engineering and connect communities. The DoD’s investment in S&T is the basis of future warfighter capability. By capturing the results of today’s research and providing outlets for wide dissemination, DTIC increases the return on S&T investment. As the premier knowledge resource for defense research, DTIC works across the Services and agencies to provide insight and awareness to all users: - Visibility across Service and agency research activity for all users. - Avoids the cost of redundant and potentially siloed Service systems. - Drives research-focused, cross-component collaboration. - Comprehensive knowledge base enhances the promise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). In concert with congressional interest, DTIC is strongly committed to modernizing systems, transforming distribution, enhancing the collection, strengthening analytical capabilities on S&T content, and supporting the management of research data sets. Ongoing modernization activities embrace data-driven concepts and leverage commercial innovations. - Recognize opportunities provided by on-demand compute resources in the cloud to perform preprocessing and analysis of DoD research. - Redefine DTIC architecture as we move to the cloud to increase capacity and access to advanced technologies. - Buy, not develop, capability to speed tool delivery. Additional details regarding DTIC modernization efforts are outlined in a subsequent section. DTIC delivers a knowledge base of more than 4.7 Million information records to increase collaboration and cooperation within the DoD, with our industry partners, academia, inter-agency working groups, and citizen scientists. For over 75 years, DTIC has been providing research results, lessons learned, where work is being performed and progress made. DTIC, a DoD Field Activity under the authority, direction and control of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USD(R&E)), is the DoD’s executive agent and sole central source for DoD-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and industry-related information. DTIC develops and delivers information and services to share knowledge and enhance decision making. This Program Element (PE) provides for DTIC mission operations, which are focused on three core activities: Content Management, User Services, and Information Analysis Centers (IACs): a) Content Management includes the S&T repository of 4.7 Million DoD and Service records (reports and research data). DTIC acquires and prepares 80 Thousand records a year, aligned to priority areas, COIs, and technology areas to aid discovery. DTIC captures the results of DoD’s multi-billion annual investment as a foundation for future activity, enabling the community to build upon past work to avoid costly and time-delaying rework. Ongoing efforts focus on consolidating input systems and migrating users to electronic submission to improve quality of material and realign resources from manual processing to end user tools. b) User Services offers search interfaces on NIPRNet (CUI), SIPRNet (classified), and Internet (public), providing for situational awareness of on-going research activity across the Department. Ongoing efforts focus on enhancing analysis tools to increase understanding of the S&T landscape; incorporating leading commercial analytic and search technologies to improve search results; and providing users key information to provide a complete picture of activity and progress. By employing tools now accessible in the cloud, DTIC looks to move the burden and time consumption for initial analysis from the user by pre-processing and presenting information products that inform and answer questions using data drawn from multiple collections. Improve user self-service functions to refocus resources on information analysis and interrogation capabilities. c) DTIC's Information Analysis Centers (IACs) drive innovation and technological development by anticipating and responding to the information needs of the defense and broader community. The IAC Program Management Office (IAC PMO) provides core funding, management, and oversight of three IACs, which are chartered by DoD to collect, research, analyze, and disseminate S&T information in specialized fields to DoD researchers and acquisition professionals. In addition, the IAC PMO manages large, $28 billion multiple award contract to make possible new research that builds on prior investments and incorporates the innovations of government, industry, and academia. For the last several years, competition inherent in the IAC model has produced savings of 10-16% under projected costs, while still delivering vetted technical expertise to address DoD’s complex challenges. Providing DoD labs and program managers’ access to thousands of industry subject matter experts, the IACs performed over $2 Billion of customer-funded research and analysis in FY 2021. The results of the work are a rich source of new material for DTIC's technical repositories and are available to users across the Department. The IAC approach was identified as a "best practice" by the Director of Defense Pricing and Contracting and the then- Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in a July 2018 memo wherein they recommended use of the IAC contracts across DoD as "vehicles of first choice." DTIC MODERNIZATION DTIC’s modernization efforts will establish DTIC as the go-to source of S&T knowledge and analysis – increasing the nation’s return on S&T investment and accelerating the maturity of capability to the warfighter. DTIC’s modernization focus areas include the following: - Readiness and Availability: The DTIC approach will take full advantage of cloud integration. The high availability of cloud will enable users to depend on DTIC for information, analysis, and collaboration. The cloud offers a flexible hosting environment and ensures DTIC will have the capability to support the emerging needs of the S&T community including access to compute and storage for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). - Submissions: A broad community of researchers (civilians, military, industry, academia) and technology consumers (PEOs, CCMDs) look to DTIC for cross-organization access to information only available in DTIC’s collection. DTIC is working to integrate Service pipelines more fully with DTIC submission system, complete batch upload, establish application interfaces, and system-to-system submissions. Enhancing the submission system, simplifying submission, and automation of the process will yield a more complete picture (quality and quantity) of the state of knowledge and activity feeding DTIC search, providing improved situational awareness, increased understanding, and better decisions. - Search and Analysis: Adopting AI/ML-ready commercial search engine gives DTIC users access to a leading commercial engine and user interface features that will be continuously enhanced. When implemented, analysis and visualizations will be a key method of conveying information. Return-on-Investment for S&T will increase as users will spend less time looking for information and more time benefiting from information at DTIC (less rework, optimized efforts, enhanced analysis, and building community), improving coordination of research efforts. Analysis and data mining of DoD collections will uncover new relationships, trends, and opportunities. - Data Sets: This represents a long-term endeavor, greatly aided by cooperative engagement with the services and coordination within R&E. DTIC is coordinating its approach with the Department’s Chief Data Officer (CDO) and is working with the DoD S&T community to populate research data sets directory. DTIC is an active member of the Research Data Working Group; the Services are engaged in governance and strategy for metadata sharing, application programming interfaces (APIs), and code/tools to use. Increased awareness of existing DoD S&T data sets across the community, revalidating results, and confidence sharing data sets and associated code/tools cross Service/agency will provide a baseline to validate utility of data set preservation. OTHER MISSION PRIORITIES Other priority and complementary DTIC mission activities are described below: - Bring communities together supporting collaboration between researchers, warfighters, industry, academia, Federal agencies, and allies. - Ensure information is protected: easily available to trusted users and blocked from unauthorized access. - Develop and manage DoD’s Science Technology Information Policy (STIP). - Maintain compliance with existing public law, regulations, and guidelines. - Continue progress on Congressionally mandated programs, as directed within the FY 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), to include: -- Innovators Information Repository (IIR): Increase awareness of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) and other small business innovative technology capabilities and improve transition to systems of record. Add resources to the IIR; provide Program Executive Offices (PEOs) and Program Managers (PMs) increased visibility on innovation. -- Global Research Watch (GRW) Program: In partnership with the Strategic Intelligence & Analysis Cell (SIAC), DTIC provides infrastructure for SIAC’s decision-quality analysis of open-source information on international research programs and capabilities. Building on prior results, DTIC will tailor the hosting environment based on SIAC feedback and evaluation of accuracy and utility of analysis. SIAC led the effort to establish analytical and global horizon scanning tools necessary to support GRW with DTIC hosting applications and data. -- Data Sets and Data Repositories: Data set reuse reduces time to delivery, cost, and environmental impact. DTIC is actively working to position data sets as a resource for accelerating research. DTIC’s PubDefense provides links to DoD funded data sets produced in extramural research linked to published journal articles. DTIC is leading the DDR&E(R&T) chartered cross-Service Research Data Working Group to coordinate activities. Management of research data sets opens the opportunity to gain more value from investments in data sets and reduction of time to delivery of new capability. In support of these mission operations, DTIC leases space and critical shared services (e.g., human resources (HR); financial management and accounting; contracting; cloud hosting; common-use IT services and security; communications; and civilian payroll services) from expert and efficient DoD and commercial service-providers. SUMMARY - DTIC actively supports the Secretary’s priorities – defending the Nation, taking care of our people, and succeeding through teamwork. - DTIC plans reflect a strong commitment to address congressional, DoD, and R&E priorities. - Building on progress, DTIC’s focus remains on growing the knowledge base, facilitating sharing, maintaining open repositories, and developing data analytics to advance discovery and understanding. - To provide decision makers and Warfighters insight into the S&T research terrain, DTIC is adopting transformational technologies to enhance collection, distribution, analysis, and research data sets. - DTIC data-related efforts and activities are in alignment with the Department’s Chief Data Officer (CDO) strategy and research information standards.

Document Details

• Document Type: R2 Budgetary Justification
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2023
• Source ID: 0605801KA_6_0400_PB_2023
• Change Summary Explanation: Program Change: Program Change: FY 2023 funding increase reflects the fact that the FY 2022 President’s Budget request did not include out-year funding. FY 2023 Service Requirements Review Board (SRRB) Reduction: The FY 2023 Base program includes a $0.740 Million reduction in accordance with the Department’s service contract downsizing effort. The FY 2023 Base program also includes a $0.028 Million reduction attributable to Fourth Estate Information Technology (4E IT) Reform savings.
• Service Agency Name: Defense Technical Information Center

Entities

Organizations

• Defense Technical Information Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

• Autonomy
• Cyber
• Engineered Resilient Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

• Artificial Intelligence
• Best Practices
• Business Administration
• Data Analysis
• Data Centers
• Data Mining
• Data Sets
• Defense Systems
• Engineering
• Environment
• Homeland Defense
• Information Systems
• Intellectual Property
• Knowledge Management
• Machine Learning
• National Security
• Social Media

Fields of Study

• Computer science

Readers

• Defense Technology Research and Development.
• Enterprise Information Systems Architecture and Joint Command Capability Interoperability Support.

Technology Areas

• AI & ML
• AI & ML - DoD AI Strategy
• Microelectronics
• Space