Marine Corps posts Integrated Information Intelligence RFI
By Loren Blinde
February 9, 2021
On February 8, the U.S. Marine Corps posted a request for information (RFI) and an industry day notice on behalf of the Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC), PMM-173 Marine Corps Cyber Operations (PM MCCO) Program Office for the Integrated Information Intelligence (I3P) requirement. Responses are due by 2:00 p.m. Eastern on February 19.
Background
PM MCCO provides direct acquisition support to the Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command (MFCC) and acts as liaison to MFCC on behalf of the Commander, MCSC. In this role, PM MCCO assisted with the procurement of an OSINT tool designed to provide a capability for real-time analytics on diverse, rich, global, multi-language publicly available information (PAI) acquired through a managed attribution framework. Data sources were derived from across the social media spectrum and a number of commercial threat intelligence vendors. The current OSINT capability, named the Integrated Intelligence Platform (IIP), intended to enable an OSINT/Cyber Common Operating Picture with geographical and counterintelligence rendering, bolstered by modern artificial intelligence technologies (such as natural language processing, machine translation, etc.) intended to speed the OSINT Analyst’s ability to rapidly survey data, identify hidden trends, and produce actionable intelligence.
Concurrently, but separately, the Capabilities Development Directorate (CDD) within Headquarters Marine Corps (HQMC) Deputy Commandant (DC) for Combat Development and Integration and the Information Maneuver Division (IMD) within DC for Information had been working to identify requirements within the Marine Corps Information Environment Enterprise (MCIEE) for PAI and OSINT analytics capabilities. IMD and CDD found that existing, individually procured solutions do not answer all requirements for any of the various members of the MCIEE. They further found that these existing disjointed efforts were precluding development of enterprise PAI and OSINT solutions. In coordination with PM MCCO, IMD and CDD initiated outreach across the DoD, CYBERCOM, MCIEE, and MFCC to capture existing requirements for a service/enterprise PAI & OSINT Capability Needs Statement (CNS) which will provide needed capabilities for MCIEE communities such as COMSTRAT, Cyber, MCIA, MCIOC, etc. This CNS is intended to allow entry into a sustained Program of Record utilizing the DoD’s Software Acquisition Pathway.
To ensure this CNS, and subsequently delivered capability, is fully informed by its intended user, CDD has released a calling message for a combined Operational Planning Team (OPT), staffed by PAI and OSINT stakeholders from across HQMC, the Fleet Marine Force, and MFCC. In addition to capturing requirements for a PAI and OSINT analytics capability, this OPT will clarify the differing missions and authorities which would drive and govern use of such a capability. An industry day, supported by this RFI, is a part of ensuring a fully informed CNS.
The primary goal of this RFI are: 1) ensure the validated requirement document for a Joint/USMC enterprise PAI and OSINT analytics capability is informed by state of the art industry solutions; 2) identify companies that might be able to provide desired services; and 3) discover existing contracts and partnerships which might streamline delivery of capability.
Currently, draft desired capabilities include requirement for managed attribution, persistent managed attribution, edge analytics, commercial threat intelligence, geospatial selector discovery, link analysis and graph analytics, dark web monitoring, social/media analytics, open source dashboard, master data model, data lake/storage, intelligence orchestration and dissemination, cross domain data transfer and aggregation, international video/news data, PAI data mining and battlespace awareness, operations to inform and/or influence engagements (ex. sentiment analysis, narrative/summary generation, etc.), deployable functionality. This list is not fully inclusive, under development, and to be informed by briefs/discussion at the upcoming OPT.
Industry Day
In support of CDD’s OPT, PM MCCO will host a Vendor Industry Day. This will take place on Tuesday, February 23, 2021 from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm EST on or around Marine Corps Base Quantico.
Full information is available here.
Source: SAM
