Northrop Grumman has announced that it has been awarded two US Air Force (USAF) contract modifications to continue operating and maintaining the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) system in support of overseas contingency missions. The news was announced 23 July 2012.
The contract modifications combined are worth $156 million to the company. Of this $106 million is to extend the deployment and operation of BACN payloads installed in three E-11A Bombardier Global Express BD-700 aircraft and three EQ-4B Block 20 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles until June 2013; while $50 million is for the platform maintenance support of three E-11A aircraft until February 2013.
BACN is a high-altitude, airborne communications and information gateway system that provides situational awareness and command and control coordination between warfighters and commanders. With a suite of computers and radio systems, BACN bridges and extends voice communications and battlespace information from numerous sources.
BACN was first deployed to support Operation Enduring Freedom in 2008.
The airborne three-domain, the two ground-based and the ¼ ATR OpenVPX-based cross-domain systems were engineered to provide real-time security across multi-domain operations.
DARPA’s Mission-Integrated Network Control (MINC) programme was set up to develop an autonomous tactical network and enable critical data flow in contested environments.
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Defence-secure mixed reality headsets can save hours, or even weeks, of travel time to fix defunct equipment or get subject experts effectively “on-site” where they are needed.
The Joint Counter Radio-Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare (JCREW) counter-improvised explosive device (C-IED) and Drone Restricted Access Using Known Electromagnetic Warfare (DRAKE) counter-UAS (CUAS) systems are mounted and dismounted RF jammers.
Adarga’s Vantage information analysis tool is in service with the UK MoD and individual UK forces. It builds on the company’s Knowledge Platform which processes, organises and analyses open source material, as well as information held by the user’s military, security and intelligence services.
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