situational awareness

U.S. Army researchers are developing spectrum visualization technology that offers an array of benefits, including the ability to maintain contact with—and control of—remotely controlled vehicles on the battlefield.

Officials assessed the Network Coverage Overlay (NCO), which has been nicknamed “Nico,” during the recent Network Modernization Experiment at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey.

The U.S. Army’s Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing/Space Cross-Functional Team has given the nod to the Navigation Warfare Situational Awareness Abbreviated Capability Development Document. The document validates the operational need and enables experimentation and rapid prototyping of capabilities for the warfighter.

Hexagon U.S. Federal Inc., Huntsville, Alabama, is being awarded a $107,067,910 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and cost-only indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract for surface ship Situational Awareness, Boundary Enforcement and Response (SABER) qualification testing and non-recurring engineering, computing hardware production, land-based site equipment, spare parts and engineering services. This IDIQ will support multiple program executive offices and ship programs. Work under this IDIQ contract will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama, and is expected to be completed by September 2023. No funding will be obligated with this IDIQ award; funds will be obligated with each order.

Confronting adversaries on a more complicated battlefield requires advanced tools for a U.S. Army more comfortable operating in the traditional domains of land, sea, air and space. The new Cyber Situational Understanding program of record, however, will give the U.S. Army an increased understanding with actionable information of the cyber domain, explained Portia Crowe, chief, Cyber Engineering at the Army’s Program Executive Office Command Control Communications – Tactical (PEO C3T).

Crowe headed up the AFCEA Aberdeen Chapter’s 4th Annual C4ISR Cyber Panel on March 6 and spoke to SIGNAL Magazine in an interview.

Federal mandates and economic concerns are pushing businesses and government agencies to migrate their IT services to the cloud. As a result, decision makers must consider how to proceed in a way that meets compliance requirements in a timely, affordable and secure fashion.

Two data migration experts at experienced commercial organizations recently offered their advice to organizations that are just beginning on the data migration trail or are well on their way but hitting a few bumps in the road.

Canadian Commercial Corp., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, is being awarded a $49,551,053 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the procurement of Military Sealift Command Situational Awareness System program Electro-Optics Sensor system (MSC-EOS). The MSC-EOS Systems will be operated on Military Sealift Command and other Navy or Coast Guard maritime platforms. The MSC-EOS System’s primary mission is to provide enhanced visual imagery to augment existing electronic sensors.

Sotera Defense Solutions Inc., Herndon, Virginia, was awarded an $11,036,371 modification (P00007) to contract W911NF-16-C-0005 for a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency research and development effort titled, “Technology Demonstrations and Assessments Using a Data Science Approach to Situation Understanding for Counter Insurgency Operations.” Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of January 20, 2019. Fiscal 2017 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $1,995,881 were obligated at the time of the award. The Army Contracting Command, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, is the contracting activity.

Vencore Labs Inc. - Applied Communication Sciences, Basking Ridge, New Jersey, has been awarded an $8,169,720 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for software and reports. Contractor will provide research, development, demonstration and delivery of a machine-intelligence for advance notification of threats and energy-grid survivable situational awareness software system. Work will be performed at Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and is expected to be complete by July 27, 2020. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition with 70 offers received. Fiscal 2016 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $1,353,354 are being obligated at the time of award.

I recently was privileged to attend the Global Force Symposium and Exposition hosted by the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) and held at the Von Braun Conference Center in Huntsville, Alabama. As with all such events sponsored by the AUSA, this gathering offered an opportunity to hear from senior Army leaders about the challenges they face in addressing the ongoing budget cuts forced by the 2011 Budget Control Act and the additional pressures created by sequestration—or the threat of it.

Across the entire Defense Department, situational awareness is mission critical. Real-time understanding of mission activities and the information delivered by intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems, in particular, is crucial for military commanders to make key decisions.

To ensure that ISR systems provide mission-critical information, the information technology infrastructure must run flawlessly—relaying collected data to people quickly and accurately.

How do you ensure successful information flow? And just as important, how do you increase real-time visibility across traditionally siloed systems run by different teams and monitored and managed by different products?

Scientific Research Corp., Atlanta, has been awarded a $41,849,660 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the Digital Integration for Combat Engagement Program. The contractor will provide commercial services for 25th Air Force 24/7 global situational awareness, which is connected to every combatant commander capable of moving near real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data to warfighters. Location of performance will be determined on individual task orders and are expected to be complete by February 29, 2020. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition with two offers received.

The U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, announced today it has entered into a new space situational awareness (SSA) data-sharing agreement with the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). The agreement, which was signed August 9, provides EUMETSAT with higher quality and more timely space information tailored for its organization’s specific purposes in exchange for satellite-positional and radio-frequency information.

 
Pacific Defense Solutions LLC, Kihei, Hawaii is being awarded a $9,724,737 cost plus fixed fee contract for space situational awareness research and development. The contracting activity is Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. 

BAE Systems, York, Pennsylvania, was awarded a $68,726,155 cost-reimbursement, no-fee contract modification to reset/convert Bradley Operational Desert Storm situational awareness vehicles. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Michigan, is the contracting activity.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have called upon industry to develop a low-cost and secure communications, network management and situational awareness system for the U.S. military, public safety agencies and commercial clients. The solution must enable remote and secure mission-based communications with or without cloud connectivity. The goal is to design a technology with both military and security applications that offers real-time information regardless of the infrastructure and equipment first responders or military members use.

Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Sensors, Owego, New York, is being awarded a nearly $30 million delivery order modification to provide for additional phase two non-recurring efforts in support of the MH-60R situational awareness technology insertion engineering, manufacturing, and development. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

An "Army of One" may have been the Army's motto at one time, but now, new wireless technology under development could enable individual soldiers to carry a tactical operations center compactly on their backs. It will be muddy boots connectivity in motion, linking battlefield warriors and squad leaders alike. The Soldier Planning Interfaces and Networked Electronics (SPINE)  objective is one Army effort to continually modernize C⁴ISR.

BAE Systems, York, Pennsylvania, was recently awarded a $250 million cost reimbursement - no fee contract. This requirement will procure Operation Desert Storm Situational Awareness (ODS-SA) long lead material for a total of 247 ODS-SA conversion kits, 202 of which will be used under the contract to convert vehicles from ODS to ODS-SA configurations in support of the Bradley fighting vehicle. U.S. Army, Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command Contracting Center, Warren, Michigan, is the contracting activity.