CECOM

Next week, the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division will begin testing a software repository that allows the downloading of up-to-date software systems and patches. The effort is one of thee major initiatives to resolve the service’s challenges in updating and securing systems to enhance operational readiness.

Maj. Gen. Mitchell Kilgo, USA, commanding general, Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM), reported the effort during the final day of the virtual Army’s 2020 Signal Conference, which is hosted by AFCEA.

The Army’s road to readiness runs through Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) and the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, in the opinion of Maj. Gen. Randy Taylor, CECOM’s commanding general. The advantages of the command—aside from the beautiful 144 miles of shoreline on the Chesapeake Bay in Aberdeen, Maryland, and the 400 American bald eagles that also live there— is that it may be the one place in the military where research and development in science and technology; technology development; testing; acquisition; fielding; and sustainment are all at one installation.

Not only does the Army want new capabilities to deal with dynamic changes in the warfighting realm, it also faces the challenge of obsolescence in many of its existing communications-electronics systems. Technologies designed decades ago are still carrying the freight for information that increasingly is sent in a format far different from the equipment that must deliver it to the warfighter and decision maker.

General Dynamics C4 Systems Incorporated was awarded a $3.7 billion firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, level-of-effort, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. The award will provide for the procurement of the Command Hardware Systems-4. The U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, Contracting Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

Syracuse Research Corporation, North Syracuse, New York, was awarded a more than $6 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the improvement services in support of the lightweight counter-mortar radar units. The U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, Contracting Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

ITT Communications Systems, Fort Wayne, Indiana, was recently a $569 contract modification to deliver Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System ancillary equipment, spare parts, and repair and engineering services.  The U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

Raytheon Network Centric Systems, Dallas, Texas, was awarded recently awarded a $25 million contract to provide for the foreign military sale of driver's vision enhancer and commander vision enhancer for the Saudi Arabian national guard. The U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, Contracting Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

Modus Operandi, Melbourne, Florida has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command to develop a system that identifies critical words and phrases for intelligence analysis, and maintains lists of these key words. The Vocabulary - Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (V-ISR) project, will address the challenges associated with processing overwhelming amounts of intelligence data. The V-ISR project will use advanced, machine-learning techniques to recognize new terms and automatically categorize them within lists that will be constantly updated.

DRS C3 7 Aviation Company, Horsham, Pennsylvania, was awarded a more than $19 million contract for ground surveillance hardware and services for the government of Egypt. The U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, Contracting Center, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, is the contracting activity.

Booz Allen Hamilton, Red Bank, New Jersey, was recently awarded a $31 million contract for 350 Wolfhound systems, as well as managing, producing, testing, validating, delivery, and supporting the services and products associated with the Wolfhound systems. The U.S. Army's Communications Electronics Command Acquisition Center, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, is the contracting activity.

General Dynamics C4 Systems Incorporated, Taunton, Masschusetts, was recently awarded a $187 million contract modification to raise the contract ceiling to $2.68 billion. Items to be procured under this contract are Common Hardware Systems-3. U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command Contracting Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

L-3 Communications Westwood Corp., Tulsa, Oklahoma, was recently awarded a $175 million contract modification by the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command to provide 30 and 60 kilowatt tactical quiet generator sets to provide the necessary and critical power for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment and combat support systems.  The modification was issued to increase the contract ceiling amount to $376 million with an estimated completion date of March 1, 2011.

The complexities of the U.S. Army’s networks and spectrum allocation processes interfere with the need to reassign units to different tasks, creating major delays and presenting serious challenges. To solve the issue, researchers intend to deliver a wide range of technologies, including automated spectrum planning and allocation tools and smarter radios, that will use spectrum more efficiently, network more effectively and provide commanders the flexibility to reorganize as needed.

Melding the disciplines of spectrum combat will enable greater flexibility and more capabilities.

The growth in battlefield electronics has spurred a corresponding growth in electronic warfare. In the same manner that innovative technologies have spawned new capabilities, electronic warfare is becoming more complex as planners look to incorporate new systems into the battlespace.

Officials work to provide a new cloud approach across 
the service as well as the Defense Department.

U.S. Army officials estimate that by the end of the fiscal year, they will go into production on a new cloud computing solution that could potentially be made available across the Defense Department and could eventually be used to expand cloud capabilities on the battlefield. The platform-as-a-service product incorporates enhanced automation, less expensive software licensing and built-in information assurance.

Aberdeen Proving Ground becomes the home of high-techology development, validation and deployment.

Consolidating its communications-electronics assets in a single location has given the U.S. Army vital resources and flexibility that it needs to address its changing information technology demands during a time of transition. This transition is twofold: not only is Army communications absorbing new commercial technologies and capabilities, the Army itself also is facing substantial changes as a force that has been overseas for more than a decade is redeploying back to its U.S. bases.