DISA airborne ISR platform team recognized by DOD Chief Information Officer
The Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) Airborne Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (AISR) team was one of 20 teams and individuals presented with a 2018 Department of Defense Chief Information Officer (DOD CIO) Annual Award for Cyber and Information Technology (IT) Excellence.
The AISR team was recognized for its efforts to provide combatant commands with essential services and information transport to propagate decisive command and control to the battlefield through a joint, rather than service-specific, AISR model.
The awards ceremony, held Nov. 29 in the Pentagon auditorium, recognized individuals and teams within the DOD information technology (IT) community for exceptional achievements in delivering forward-leaning and strategically impactful technology capabilities and IT management practices.
“As you know, we have these four priorities that we have this incredible focus on from a technology standpoint,” said DOD CIO Dana Deasy, who presented the award. “And they are cloud; artificial intelligence; cyber; and command, control, and communications. … And of course we have this overarching thing called ‘reform and simplify the way we get stuff done across the Department of Defense.’ Every one of these [award winners] fits clearly into one of these buckets, and that just delights me to no end.”
The DISA-managed Unified Video Dissemination System (UVDS) portal contains thousands of hours of full motion video being provided by many unique mission feeds from airborne sensor platforms. A robust population of global visitors access the feeds monthly to obtain immediate awareness of the battlefield.
“Real-time information flow provides regional commanders with the ability to respond deliberately to new opportunities and threats, and ensures mission success while saving lives,” the citation said.
The citation also described how, through trusted partnerships, DISA’s AISR team closely aligned with United States Special Operations Command, United States Central Command (CENTCOM), and United States Africa Command. Those combatant commands served as early adopters and vocal supporters of the agency’s AISR plan, which aims to ensure secure and reliable information sharing and integrated information flows for U.S. and coalition mission partners.
DISA subject matter experts were deliberate in finding ways to improve partnerships with allies and industry, ensuring successful mission execution in the face of cyber threats, while at the same time providing a DOD cloud computing environment, optimizing the department’s data center infrastructure, exploiting the power of trusted information sharing, and providing a resilient communications and network infrastructure, the citation said.
The team received new resources to fully build out the capability for the CENTCOM theater, and is now planning for a similar effort in the Indo-Pacific Command region with satellite communication (SATCOM) terminals, UVDS hubs, and other essential equipment and personnel.
The DOD CIO award validates the team’s effort to provide a globally interconnected and redundant SATCOM-based transport system that synchronizes and shares all information and data products.
Posted December 4, 2018