Posted on 07/26/2012 8:17:04 PM PDT by huldah1776
"The Army ordered the destruction of a report that praised the performance of an off-the-shelf software program that finds buried explosives in Afghanistan and replaced it with a revised, less-favorable assessment, according to internal Pentagon documents."
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At one point, a frustrated 82nd Airborne intelligence officer wrote to higher-ups, “We are trying to solve some very hard problems that pose life or death issues for the soldiers under this command, and [DCGS] is not making our job easier, while Palantir is giving us an intelligence edge. This is a pretty big redline for many of the units in the field, of which 82nd Airborne Division is certainly the most visible.”
The officer added, “The chain of command believes they need to have this capability in the fight and that it will save soldiers’ lives and limbs. Bottom line, there is a significant capability gap in DCGS … that Palantir greatly exceeds, and with extremely high stakes in a very violent environment, today we need the capability advantage that Palantir provides.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Someone? Try this: Obama, Panetta, the Generals, the Colonels...
Every year, a number of companies come out with various gadgets to sell off to the military. Their open tests? Well...sometimes, they are rigged to make a big show and an enthusiastic viewer might come away that some new gadget is a four-star item...when the truth is that it’s marginally better than what they already bought and own.
Adding to the mess is various companies which hook into political groups or individuals and hope that two Senators or five congressmen will make a difference in getting a contract. So they contribute to campaign funds to get more attention.
This software pitch might be better....or it might involved rigged results. The Army is in this test and evaluate mode. And the thing is....there really isn’t an unlimited budget anymore.
Follow the money.
What a shame our soldier’s lives have to be measured in dollars. Sucks!
The Brass doesn’t like it when they’ve got some swell acquisition effort to manage and take credit for, only to find out the wheel has already been invented.
The excuses for destroying the April report, stink to high heaven!
If I’m elected president, I’m going to cashier most of the senior officers in Afghanistan and the Pentagon who are killing our soldiers with criminal negligence.
Then I’m going to jail them for life, and I’m going back to the debacle at Manat and the other outposts where our men were denied air support.
Time to clean out the PC and cowards that Obama has put in charge of the military, the FBI, the State Dept, ATF, ICE, TSA, and other law enforcement agencies who have been compromised by Obama and Holder.
I’m also going to clean out the upper echelons of the Dept. of Justice, now the most politically corrupted government department in US history.
That’s just in my first hour. Then the “games” will really begin. By the time I’m finished, Stalin will be in awe of my purges of our internal enemies and incompetents.
Now ask me what else I’m going to do.
*Put Democrats, liberals, socialists, marxists and communists on the “Endangered Species” (or Feces) List
* Show the New Black Panther Party the real meaning of “oppression”.
* Investigate every news person who leaked classified US military and intelligence secrets, try them, jail them, and if necessary, shoot them.
* Investigate every congressmen/women who bribed Democrat-led bundlers/donors and their companies with TARP, Stimulus, or just plain “Pork” for their support.
* Investigate every major Obama bundler for illegal political contributions (i.e. bribes for business)
* Make it mandatory that every political electee to the federal government go through a Full-Field Background Investigation. Same for most of their staffers and all Committee staffers.
*Jail all the DOJ, ATF, etc. fools who helped to kill Officer Brian Terry in “Fast and Furious”. NO PAROLE.
I’m just getting started.
BINGO, you nailed it. That wapo story is full of half facts and half truths. Honestly, Palenteer and DCGS are two completely different animals. It is comparing apples and oranges.
This same story has raised it’s ugly head several times over the past two years each time with some office liking Palenteer and hating DCGS.
Pardon, I said wapo and meant Washington Times.
Yep, same story has been recycled for two years.
Rumor is one (possibly both) of the the “former intel officers” quoted in the story work for Palantir.
In addition, Army officers and civilians spend a lot of time, resources, and money responding to these inaccurate and dated reports and some congressional inquiries that could be much better spent in support of the Warfighter.
Too bad they choose this path instead of actually trying to honestly sell the Army their product at a reasonable price. It is apparently a capable application but only really good at the one thing, not a fully capable intelligence analysis system, which DCGS-A is.
I’m down with most of that. You got my vote.
This software pitch might be better....or it might involved rigged results. The Army is in this test and evaluate mode. And the thing is....there really isn’t an unlimited budget anymore.
Be that as it may, can you explain why the report was ordered "destroyed?"
If what you (and aparently others) suggest is true, then there would have been no need to destroy the evaluation and let the results speak for themselves. That in itself is a a big red flag.
Don't know if you ever served, but when it comes to the safety and lives of our Warriors, we should NOT be counting pennies or be worried about the "Budget," especially if there are ways to minimize casualties which exist and are not being considered or utilized...usually for political or worse, "monetary" consideration, i.e., that of companies/contractors having influence with the Pentagon or Congress.
Somewhere around the first starred object, you will be shot.
Your reign will make John Paul 1 look like a haggard veteran.
The new software was probably invented or sold to the government by somones brother/relative. The guys in the field KNOW first hand what works and what doesn’t. Let them make the selections and not the politicians/generals, etc.
Now that I think of it, the Brits had some kind of software to find disturbed locations. That was a while ago.
As long as you’re pontificating, get rid of TSA, DHS, ATF, FBI and every single federal department and agency not specifically authorized by the Constitution. That would also include DEA, DOE, DOEd, IRS, DOL, HHS, HUD, the Fed, etc., for a total of about NINETY FIVE PERCENT of fedgov.
“This software pitch might be better....or it might involved rigged results. The Army is in this test and evaluate mode. And the thing is....there really isn’t an unlimited budget anymore.”
Considering that the troops who’ve used it evaluate Palantir as the better option, that seems quite unlikely. I’ve been through the process with hardware for satellite systems, which the Army manages. It takes decades to get results from the Army’s procurement system even for KNOWN and well-documented problems.
WRM, MSgt, USAF(Ret.)
aka Old Student
Well, that is a good start... So far, you have my vote.
However, in my opinion, you may be placing a bit too much of the blame on Obama: Bush did little or nothing, in many instances, to reverse the downward decline of the FedGov and its denizens begun in earnest under and Clinton and, of course, greatly accelerated under Obama.
In my view, Bush is a good example of: “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.”
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