The Defense Intelligence Agency is working on an artificial intelligence-powered system that once deployed will be able to quickly sift through vast amounts of data, perform intelligence analysis and help DIA analysts to focus on more complex intelligence tasks.
This program has made significant progress thus far. But what’s next for MARS? Find out more at the 2024 Intel Summit hosted by the Potomac Officers Club on Sep. 19. Multiple DIA decision makers — including MARS Deputy Program Manager Dr. Timothy Wood — are confirmed to speak at this can’t-miss intelligence event. Join the 2024 Intel Summit to be a part of the conversation.
What Is MARS?
The Machine-Assisted Analytic Rapid-Repository System, known as MARS, is the Defense Intelligence Agency’s flagship program that aims to create a dynamic, cloud-based environment for intelligence analytics using technologies like AI and machine learning.
MARS was created in 2018 with the goal of giving intelligence decision makers strategic advantage and replacing the Military Intelligence Integrated Database — the 1980s-era system that previously housed foundational military intelligence — with a more modernized system.
In 2020, Northrop Grumman won a $690 million task order to build a suite of data systems as part of the MARS and Transforming All-Source Analysis with Location-Based Object Services, or TALOS, programs.
Significant MARS Milestones
MARS made a major accomplishment in March 2021 when DIA announced it released its second minimum viable product, or MVP, for initial order-of-battle, or OB, capability. According to DIA, the MVP “depicts foreign military unit in the context of units’ geographic location, along with the equipment assigned to them.” The agency noted that the MVP was a “critical first step” in giving U.S. warfighters a dynamic OB capability.
Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, who served as DIA’s director until February 2024, said during his time with the agency that MARS was expected to achieve full operational capability in 2025. In the meantime, the program is seeing technological progress, especially as it begins to integrate with newer DIA programs.
DIA is working on creating a single architecture for open source intelligence, or OSINT, collection and dissemination. The Primary Open Source Tasking Management Aggregation Network system, known as POSTMAN, is expected to deploy by the end of 2024.
Alan MacDougall, who leads DIA’s Science and Technology Directorate, said POSTMAN will have a dramatic impact on the Intelligence Community. He also noted that the program is seeing success in working with MARS.
“A key accomplishment is the alignment of the output, the product of the tech services here, day in and day out, to the agency’s foundational military intelligence holding known as MARS,” MacDougall said. “The MARS program is essentially the repository for the all-source authoritative holdings … for defense, the intel enterprise in support to the Department of Defense’s planning, acquisition and operational communities.”
“We have aligned our processes in reporting the knowledge bases to meet the standards for interoperability associated with that program. It’s still a work in progress, but frankly, that makes the product here all the more relevant outside of DIA to the user community and the Department of Defense,” he added.
Hear the Latest MARS Updates at the 2024 Intel Summit
If you’re curious about what’s next for MARS, don’t miss your chance to speak with DIA leaders face-to-face about the program’s future! At the 2024 Intel Summit on Sep. 19, five DIA officials will take the stage to speak about a wide range of DIA and Intelligence Community initiatives. You’ll hear from:
- Ramesh Menon, DIA CTO
- Dr. Timothy Wood, deputy program manager for DIA’s MARS Program Management Office
- Ian Fowlie, chief of Enterprise Information Technology Engineering at DIA
- Brad Ahlskog, chief of DIA’s Open-Source Intelligence Integration Center
- Matthew Ross, executive director of Global Integration at DIA
Register today for the 2024 Intel Summit to join the conversation.
