27 May 02. BAE SYSTEMS has been contracted for the next two years by the UK Ministry of Defence to offer support to the UK delegation at the US/EURO Technical Working Group (TWG) established by NATO nations to facilitate the development of standardisation agreements (STANAGS) for future tactical area communications.

The contract, to be undertaken by the Communications & Defence
Infrastructure Division of BAE SYSTEMS C4ISR at Christchurch, United Kingdom, will support the UK, s ability to participate in this independent advisory group which is currently working on programmes such as STANAG 4206 on multi-channel tactical digital gateways, STANAG 4578 on digital strategic-to-tactical gateways and STANAG 4592 on tactical digital gateway military message handling.

On May 30th it was announced that BAE SYSTEMS is to benefit as a key sub-contractor to Syntegra following the award by the UK Ministry of Defence of a five-year facilities management contract for running the UK Land Systems Reference Centre (LSRC) to the end of 2006.

During this period, BAE SYSTEMS will be supplying software support, post-design services and a civilian test controller.

The original LSRC contract, awarded to a consortium led by Syntegra in 1996, encompassed the development of a green field site at the Royal School of Ssignals Blandford, United Kingdom, to provide a bespoke infrastructure and staff for a comprehensive testbed for UK communications and command information systems (CIS).

BAE SYSTEMS contributed the majority of the core test infrastructure software through the LSRC,s development, which culminated in its final acceptance in January 2002. Syntegra’s other partners included Insys, QinetiQ, Drumgrange and AMEC.

In addition to its role as modelling design authority, BAE SYSTEMS has also provided on-line systems (Modelling Facility, Test Management Facility and Data Acquisition), off-line systems (Test Definition Facility and Post-Test Results Analysis), and support (Integration and Staffing).

The LSRC provides a unique test environment to evaluate communications and CIS solutions in realistic operational situations, reducing procurement risk, providing certification services, evaluating in-service issues and acting as a configuration standard for current and future systems.