JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. -- In 2025, the Department of the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) evolution reached its next milestone in intelligence analysis support with a full transition to the analysis and exploitation teams (AET) model. The AET construct is deliberately nimble and flexible, enforcing lethality by eliminating platform stovepipes, fusing space and multi-source data, and rapidly adapting to the needs of the warfighter. This innovative next-generation shift enables the DCGS enterprise to better fulfill intelligence requirements for Combatant Commanders and air components in particular.
Since the early 2000s, the DCGS has been known for conducting processing, exploitation, and dissemination (PED) for airborne ISR platforms like the U-2, RQ-4, MQ-1 and MQ-9. In 2019 the DCGS began the transition from a platform-centric PED model to a problem-centric exploitation and analysis model through analysis and exploitation teams, or AETs.
“Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination was a very linear process,” said Lt. Col. Paul Stump, Air Combat Command Directorate of Operations Distributed Common Ground System and Intelligence Operations division deputy. “There was a person who told the plane to fly. There was a person who told the plane to land, to take a picture, someone to look at the picture, etc. ... It was a very reductionist process that was not agile.”
Intel Airmen would be given their objective for the day and then would go to the platform they were assigned to and see if they could provide an assessment to the customer. The industrial PED model led to certain pitfalls, one being the potential for Airmen to stovepipe their analysis.
Analysts were only able to use the data provided to them by their platforms. “You could be staring at an open-source answer to your question…but your job was to report on the MQ-9 data,” said Stump. “This happened in silos, where every airman would work independently from each other.”
Through the AET construct, not only do Airmen collaborate with each other, but they also are empowered to use multiple data sources to include space-based sensors.
“We realized there was this increase of data that was available…and the old model didn’t work,” said Stump. “Now with the AET transition, we mix all those Airmen together and say, go out and find the data as a team. You never know what platform is going to collect the information you need, but you always know the problem.”
Under the industrial PED model, the value of analysts’ efforts was determined by the number of products they created rather than the product’s actual intelligence value. This led to an overemphasis on production metrics in determining collection and analysis impact and limited follow-on interaction and integration with the warfighter on their priority problems.
According to Stump, analysts would spend hours creating products, expecting them to be reviewed and integrated into a larger picture. However, this often did not happen.
The AET construct offers the ability to focus efforts on a “problem-set” versus a “product” which enables analysts to develop customized intelligence using the best available information and data sources.
“It’s not just about producing intelligence; it’s about delivering intelligence tailored to the decisions that air components need to make,” said Col. Kathryn Fitzgerald, 480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing commander. “AETs shift our focus from simply producing intelligence to solving the right problem. When context is key and data is everywhere, it’s about providing tailored answers, not just more data.”
Analysis and exploitation team analysts are also learning and leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning (AI/ML) and automation tools to increase their ability to make sense of intelligence data that is growing at an exponential rate. New airborne and spaceborne ISR platforms require the ability to analyze data from multiple sources quickly and accurately.
"We’re not just modernizing our technology; we’re reinventing how we work [by] integrating sensors, data streams, and multi-discipline teams to outpace our adversaries [while] our analysts provide context and make sense of what’s happening in the battlespace."
- Col. Kathryn Fitzgerald, 480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing commander
The way wars are fought has changed over time, and intelligence processes are changing with it. Analysis and exploitation teams demonstrate the DCGS enterprise’s ability to adapt and leverage technology, automation and critical thinking to make sense of the battlespace at speed and scale, ensuring operational flexibility and the ability to meet the future head-on. This modernization is essential to maintaining air superiority and strategic advantage.
“Ultimately, we won’t win wars by leveraging a single platform’s capabilities,” said Fitzgerald. “Our advantage will come, as it always has, by integrating the right capabilities and resources to solve the task at hand. Prioritizing the requirement over the platform reflects that approach. For intelligence to matter, it must tie directly to delivering decision advantage.”
As adversaries are becoming more advanced, the transition from traditional PED to the AET model displays how DCGS is evolving and innovating to provide tailored battlespace awareness and characterization to Combined Joint Force Air Component Commanders when and how they need it. The willingness of the DCGS to challenge legacy constructs such as PED will enable it to outpace threats and stay ahead of the curve.