In this photo taken Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010, a US Army soldier from Scout Platoon 502 Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division searches an associate of a suspected Taliban IED placer, seen in a wheelbarrow, who was killed in a coalition missile strike in Zhari district, Kandahar province. The Scouts' mission was to support roadside bomb clearance efforts in the militant stronghold, the latest days-long phase of Operation Dragon Strike. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
U.S. Marines run through dust kicked up by a Black Hawk helicopter from Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment as they rush a colleague wounded in an IED strike for evacuation near Sangin, in the volatile Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, May 10, 2011. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
During a helicopter rescue mission, Staff Sgt. Brenden Patterson, of Las Vegas, center, an Air Force Pararescueman, or "PJ," of the 58th Rescue Squadron, gets help from two U.S. soldiers, one of whom applies a tourniquet, left, as he treats an Afghan boy who stepped on an IED, severing his right foot and most of a hand, in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, Wednesday July 28, 2010. The PJs and helicopter aircrews are part of the U.S. Air Force's 451st Air Expeditionary Wing based at Kandahar Air Field, which provides a variety of air assets in southern Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
** FILE ** U.S. Army chief Spc. Jenny Martinez holds the hand of an injured U.S. Marine who was wounded in an IED strike in June, 2011. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
In this picture taken Sunday, May 8, 2011, US Marine Staff Sgt. Tony Palomo of Louisiana is flown to hospital on a medevac helicopter from the US Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment north of Forward Operating Base Edi, after being injured in an IED blast in the volatile Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
During a U.S. Army Task Force Shadow helicopter rescue mission, a boy with shrapnel wounds from an IED explosion is rushed to a field hospital, airborne over southern Afghanistan, Sunday, Sept. 5, 2010. The explosive, which also tore off both an Afghan man's legs, was planted to kill or maim Marines and Afghan soldiers on foot, who responded and applied first aid, and called in the rescue unit from the 101st Airborne's TF Destiny. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
In this photograph made on Thursday July 29, 2010, upon landing after a helicopter rescue mission, Tech. Sgt. Jeff Hedglin, right, an Air Force Pararescueman, or PJ, drapes an American flag over the remains of the first of two U.S. soldiers killed minutes earlier in an IED attack, assisted by fellow PJs, Senior Airman Robert Dieguez, center, and 1st Lt. Matthew Carlisle, in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan. July 2010 was the deadliest month for American forces in the nearly 9-year Afghan War. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
Tammy O'Brien kisses the casket one last time after services for her son Marine Lance Corporal Nicholas O'Brien, Tuesday, June 28, 2011, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. O'Brien died June 9 from an IED (improvised explosive device) in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)The Army has hired private firms to help improve a $2.5 billion intelligence analytical processor used in Afghanistan by troops who have given it poor reviews in identifying the enemy and deadly buried explosives.
One of the firms involved is BRTRC of Fairfax, which lists strategic communications among its technological specialties.
An internal company email obtained by The Washington Times states that BRTRC will try to improve the image of the intelligence processor, the Distributed Common Ground System. The analytical processor has run into criticism in Congress and performed poorly in an operational test in May.
The Times asked the Army whether BRTRC was being brought in to “promote” the system.
An Army statement said it recently awarded a contract to the technology company DSCI for the Common Ground System. BRTRC is a subcontractor in the DSCI team, “which calls for a range of mission-support functions to include administrative support, engineering, logistics, strategic communications and knowledge management,” the statement said.
“It would be incorrect to say the purpose of the contract is to ‘promote’ DCGS,” the Army statement said.
The Army says strategic communications is just one mission of the private corporate team that will assist the Common Ground System’s program office.
The internal BRTRC email mentions assigning a strategic communications specialist to support the Common Ground System.
BRTRC boasts a communications operation that can deliver “media such as trade shows, exhibits, collateral material, videos, websites, briefings, public relations, giveaway materials, presentations, image libraries, posters and more.”
BRTRC representatives did not respond to questions from The Times.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, has charged that the Army has tried to keep commercially available software processors from the troops in order to protect the Common Ground System’s continued funding.
“The decision to hire a strategic communications professional to manage a single program because it’s receiving unwanted attention is a serious misuse of tax dollars,” said Mr. Hunter. “And it shows that there isn’t any real interest in fixing the problem of why soldiers in Afghanistan aren’t getting resources they are urgently requesting.
“A communications adviser won’t solve the problem,” said Mr. Hunter, who served as a Marine Corps officer in Iraq and Afghanistan. “If the Army thinks this is a good use of funds or this will help deliver resources faster, they are seriously mistaken.”
‘Link-analysis’ opposition
The system’s reputation is not only suffering from a poor operational test report. It also is facing competition from systems developed by high-tech firms. The private-sector systems are sold directly to combat units that petition for emergency funds outside the fixed defense budget.
View Entire Story© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Columns from Voices around the World talking about the events, people, politics and social issues that concern us wherever, and whoever, we are.
Video reviews of today's hottest trends in Minecraft (servers and mods) along with a look at the latest video games with your host MCairsoft14 (alias Jerad Zad).
Covering the world of soccer, including the World Cup, Major League Soccer, D.C. United and the English Premier League and other interesting sporting events.
Benghazi: The anatomy of a scandal
13 Photos
Vietnam Memorial adds four names
18 Photos
Cinco de Mayo on the Mall
11 Photos
NRA kicks off annual convention
8 Photos
