09 Sep 03. DRS Technologies, Inc. and AMS today signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enable them to exchange technologies and foster cooperation aimed at further penetration of the global command and control market. In addition, the MOU allows DRS, on an exclusive basis, to promote the AMS naval C2 software system to the U.S. marketplace. Initially, this will support the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) programme, as well as U.S. Navy FMF and FMS programmes.

For LCS, the partnership will offer AMS’s Type 45 derivative C2 system and DRS’s next-generation combat and situation awareness command and decision consoles. Both the C2 software and DRS hardware use the latest commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies. Since the LCS programme requires a nil or low nonrecurring element and a low -risk system solution, this combination provides a proven baseline for rapid technology insertion. The AMS Type 45 C2 system offers all of these attributes and addresses the open architecture approach required by the U.S. Navy. Because of AMS’s experience in previous programmes, it can offer a system that is inexpensive to maintain and refresh in the future and capable of supporting an incremental acquisition insertion programme. DRS’s long-standing reputation as the premier supplier of combat display workstations to the U.S. Navy provides a proven, reliable, robust platform upon which the C2 system will reside.

Carlo Venturi, AMS’s chief executive officer, said, “This agreement is an important step in providing next-generation surface combatants with a highly reliable and competitive naval C2 system. This partnership leverages best-of-breed solutions that are available today and for tomorrow”. He continued, “We will start from this contract and make the relationship grow from there.”

Mark S. Newman, DRS’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, added, “The combination of world class software and robust open hardware architecture assures the rapid availability and ease of integration that will greatly assist the Navy in this and other transformational objectives.”

DRS Technologies is already a key supplier to AMS in the area of naval consoles on programmes with Navies in the UK, Japan and Romania.

BATTLESPACE is publishing an interview with DRS CEO Mark Newman charting the meteoric rise of the company from humble beginnings as a niche player in the US naval systems business, to the leading mid-tier supplier of advanced electronic systems.