Multi-billion-dollar military computer system suffers bugs
The Army’s $2.7 billion computing system designed to share real-time intelligence with troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq reportedly doesn’t work and efforts to fix it haven’t been successful, according to recent published reports.
In fact, the system has hurt, rather than helped, efforts to fight insurgents because it doesn’t work properly, POLITICO reported last month.
Recent comments from analysts came after the top military intelligence officer in Afghanistan and members of Congress tried for the past two years to get the Army to consider alternatives to the system, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.
Analysts and former officers reportedly have said the computer system is unable to perform simple analytical tasks, prone to crashes and frequently goes off-line.
"There’s a lot of bugs in the workflow," one of the officers said.
The Army computer system is a cloud-based network designed to collect information from multiple sources for real-time analysis by battlefield commanders, according to POLITICO. For example, a commander searching for an insurgent leader would benefit from being able to collect reports of that leader's locations and plot them on a map to make tracking easier. However, the search tool made finding the reports difficult and the mapping software was not compatible.
After seeing a memo from the top military intelligence officer in Afghanistan regarding the faulty system, lawmakers sought urgent funding in fiscal 2011 for an alternative system. According to Extreme Tech, the Army refused, and instead rolled out a software update that was meant to fix any issues. Unfortunately, according to the former intelligence officers, the system is still unusable.
While it’s not likely to solve the Army's computer woes, certain specialized computer tools can make a world of difference in average PC users' lives.
Several tools are available that automatically maintain your computer and help it retain peak performance.
The Army’s $2.7 billion computing system designed to share real-time intelligence with troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq reportedly doesn’t work and efforts to fix it haven’t been successful, according to recent published reports.
In fact, the system has hurt, rather than helped, efforts to fight insurgents because it doesn’t work properly, POLITICO reported last month.
Recent comments from analysts came after the top military intelligence officer in Afghanistan and members of Congress tried for the past two years to get the Army to consider alternatives to the system, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.
Analysts and former officers reportedly have said the computer system is unable to perform simple analytical tasks, prone to crashes and frequently goes off-line.
"There’s a lot of bugs in the workflow," one of the officers said.
The Army computer system is a cloud-based network designed to collect information from multiple sources for real-time analysis by battlefield commanders, according to POLITICO. For example, a commander searching for an insurgent leader would benefit from being able to collect reports of that leader's locations and plot them on a map to make tracking easier. However, the search tool made finding the reports difficult and the mapping software was not compatible.
After seeing a memo from the top military intelligence officer in Afghanistan regarding the faulty system, lawmakers sought urgent funding in fiscal 2011 for an alternative system. According to Extreme Tech, the Army refused, and instead rolled out a software update that was meant to fix any issues. Unfortunately, according to the former intelligence officers, the system is still unusable.
While it’s not likely to solve the Army's computer woes, certain specialized computer tools can make a world of difference in average PC users' lives.
Several tools are available that automatically maintain your computer and help it retain peak performance.
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