NORTHROP TEAM TO PURSUE USAF E-10A COMMAND AND CONTROL SYSTEM
20 Aug 03. A team led by the Northrop Grumman’s (NYSE: NOC) Integrated Systems sector has submitted a proposal to develop the Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) subsystem for the U.S. Air Force’s new E-10A Multisensor Command and Control Aircraft.
The team includes four other Northrop Grumman operating sectors
(Electronic Systems, Information Technology, Mission Systems and Space
Technology), as well as Harris Corp.; General Dynamics Corp.; Cisco Systems; Oracle Corp.; Zel Technologies (ZelTech); Alphatech; L-3 Communications West; and L-3 Comcept. (See Feature by Scott Gourley in BAATLESPACE C4ISTAR TECHNOLOGIES June issue)
“Northrop Grumman is committed to providing a BMC2 solution that integrates the most relevant domain knowledge and enabling technologies drawn from across our corporation and companies in the defense and commercial information technology industries,” said Scott J. Seymour, Northrop Grumman corporate vice president and Integrated Systems sector president. “The members of this team have a proven track record developing and delivering capabilities that span the spectrum of the military battle space and the commercial economy. To ensure that we capture this experience in the design of our BMC2 network, we’ve invested in a nationwide virtual battlefield environment that includes actual, realistic simulations of platform sensors, communications and battle management applications, plus a fully functional mockup of the E-10A’s BMC2 subsystem. We’re using this environment today to frame the network-centric concepts and systems that commanders on the E-10A will employ tomorrow.”
Northrop Grumman’s Integrated Systems sector will serve as the overall program manager for the Northrop Grumman BMC2 team. It will also provide systems engineering, modelling and simulation, ground-moving target indicator (GMTI) exploitation, precision aimpoint generation and mission applications.
The company’s Electronic Systems sector will provide leadership in data fusion and exploitation. Northrop Grumman’s Information Technology sector will provide airborne battle management, mission planning and computing infrastructure expertise, while the Mission Systems sector will lead the communications and network engineering task. The company’s Space Technology sector will use its expertise in military space systems and communications systems engineering to help ensure that the team’s BMC2 solution leverages the capabilities and advantages of space-based assets.
General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems (formerly Veridian) will support the team in the areas of security engineering, modelling and simulation and human factors engineering. Harris Government Communications Systems Division will bring proven government communications and imagery exploitation capabilities. Cisco Systems is a worldwide leader in commercial networking, mobile networking information processing solutions, commercial-off-the-shelf hardware and expert in international computing standards. Oracle brings its leadership in database technology and expertise in managing critical information in a system-of-systems environment. Both of these companies bring industry-leading networking and database management expertise to the team.