Operating the Distributed Common Ground System: A Look at the Human Factor in Net-Centric Operations
Abstract
Every day, intelligence professionals execute ISR operations that provide threat warning to patrolling soldiers and marines, find potential locations of improvised explosive devices along convoy routes, and track insurgents for targeting purposes. These professionals operate not only from remote forward operating bases in Iraq or Afghanistan but also from bases and agencies within the United States and around the world. Many of them are part of the Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS), a unique and potent twenty-first century weapon system. Although the DCGS is a human system, its guiding documents and literature might suggest otherwise. This literature emphasizes network-centric operations and machine-to-machine technology as opposed to the skills of the intelligence professionals who operate the system. Discussions within the DCGS literature on human factors that either drive or impede the pursuit of actionable intelligence or the execution of the kill chain are often difficult to find. This lack of emphasis on the human factor inadvertently masks its centrality to the success or failure of the DCGS -- a network-based, not a platform-based, weapon system. Indeed, one of the system s most distinguishing aspects is the fact that its performance is tied more to human than to platform capabilities. In other words, the quality of the DCGS is defined less by machines and more by the complex and largely intangible web of human behaviors and abilities -- the human factor within the system.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA640256
Entities
People
- Jason M. Brown
Organizations
- Air University