The Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom AFB, Mass., expects the last of five core Air Force sites—Ramstein AB, Germany—to get the Distributed Common Ground System Integrated Backbone (DIB, for short) by the end of this month. That puts the program a full year ahead of schedule, reports Monica Morales at ESC. Hanscom oversees the joint service project, which employs a Web-based application to make real-time data available across the Intelligence Community. The other four Air Force sites that already have DIB capability are Beale AFB, Calif., Hickam AFB, Hawaii, Langley AFB, Va., and Osan AB, South Korea.
The emphasis on speed in the Pentagon’s newly unveiled slate of acquisition reforms may come with increased near-term cost increases, analysts say. But according to U.S. defense officials, the new weapons-buying construct provides the military with enough flexibility to prevent runaway budget overruns in major programs.
