Working as I do in the Military Acquisition area- I do Developmental Test on Navy aircraft mission systems, a few of the buzzwords are familiar to me, as well as the optimistic tone. That being said there’s goodness here too. Firm Fixed Price Contracts should be the norm, but unfortunately the industry heavy hitters can command Cost Plus, which is just what it sounds like. For example, the Navy pays for software, finds faults, and then pays to have it fixed. Lookin’ at you, Boeing. The Army’s being smart, but then again this is a relatively small effort- $39M USD is a drop in the bucket. I also like commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) as if saves tax dollars by freeing components from MilSpec standards, which can boarder on the ridiculous. That’s for another post and another time. For now, Army, meet your new C4I system coming to you via Systematic.
Defense Tech
Army Selects New Battle-Management System
By: Matt Cox
The U.S. Army has selected Systematic to provide the service with a new command and control, and battle-management system designed to direct digital information across handheld, mounted and command post mission command systems.
The contract, a Firm Fixed Price and Time and Material with a one-year base and four one-year options, is valued at approximately $39 million, according to a recent Army press release.
Systematic’s SitaWare will provide scalable and seamless information sharing across systems and devices, taking a significant step toward the Army’s continued evolution of its Command Post Computing Environment, according to Army officials.
“SitaWare provides an out-of-the-box solution to synching mission command data across echelons and provides a leap forward in the Army’s goal of migrating to a common architecture,” said Lt. Col. Shane Taylor, product manager for the Army’s Tactical Mission Command, part of the Program Executive Office Command, Control and Communications-Tactical.
“It meets two of our needs in that it will provide soldiers within a Command Post with simplified, improved C2 (command and control), as well as better interoperability with coalition forces. Additionally, it provides the basis for the Army’s initial, common framework that we will use to converge warfighting functions.”
As a scalable command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) system, SitaWare supports infrastructure services to deliver digital information across handheld, mounted and command post mission command systems. Acting as a digital mediation service between the devices, it enables the processing and delivery of mission command data to commanders regardless of the device, the release states.
The commercial-off-the-shelf product will provide a key part of the CP CE infrastructure, which the Army anticipates fielding to its first unit in fiscal year 2019, Army officials maintain.
Command Post Computing Environment, or CP CE, will begin to eliminate the necessity for separate hardware, reducing commanders’ need to “mentally” fuse digital information displayed on multiple systems, across different screens and with different user interfaces.
“We are seeking to rapidly simplify the large amount of C2/SA (situational awareness) capabilities and to make them scalable in support of early entry through mature combat operations,” said Col. Troy Crosby, project manager for Mission Command, part of PEO C3T. “The procurement of SitaWare products, combined with our other developmental efforts, will provide those critical simplified, modular capabilities.”
CP CE is one of six computing environments that make up the Army’s Common Operating Environment (COE), a collection of technologies and standards that bring stovepiped systems onto a common foundation, allowing the Army to deliver warfighting capabilities as software applications, according to Army officials.