Written by / Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
Army Orders Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle Systems
The Army has awarded Northrop Grumman a $517 million contract to develop up to three long endurance multi-intelligence vehicle (LEMV) systems. Northrop Grumman has designed a system with plug-and-play capability to readily integrate into the Army’s existing common ground station command centers and ground troops in forward operating bases, with the main objective of providing U.S. warfighters with persistent ISR capability to increase awareness of the ever changing battlefield. Under the agreement, awarded by the Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command, Northrop Grumman will design, develop and test a long-duration hybrid airship system within an 18-month time period, and then transport the asset to the Middle East for military assessment. LEMV will sustain altitudes of 20,000 feet for a three-week period, and it will operate within national and international airspace. It will be forward-located to support extended geostationary operations from austere operating locations using beyond line-of-sight command and control. Northrop Grumman has teamed with Hybrid Air Vehicles, using its HAV304 platform, Warwick Mills, ILC Dover, AAI Corp., SAIC, and a team of technology leaders from 18 U.S. states to build LEMV. Northrop Grumman will provide system integration expertise and flight and ground control operations to safely take off and land the unmanned vehicle for worldwide operations.
Dianne Baumert-Moyik:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Technical Services Support Air Force Video Processing Capability
The Air Force Warner Robins Air Logistics Center has awarded SAIC a contract to provide support to the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) Video Processing Capability (VPC) enterprise architecture. This single-award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract has a one-year base period of performance, four one-year options, and a total value of more than $49 million, if all options are exercised. The Air Force DCGS is the service’s premier globally networked intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance weapon system. The DCGS produces intelligence information collected by the U-2, RQ-4 Global Hawk, MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1 Predator. Approximately 700 gigabytes of information flow through the system daily. Under the contract, SAIC will support the AF DCGS video processing capability by providing technical services in support of the system’s ability to process, view and exploit full motion video provided by the unmanned aerial vehicle and sensor platforms operated by the intelligence community.
Partnership to Develop Enhancements for Full Motion Video
Z Microsystems and Enhanced Video Devices (EVD), a developer of contrast enhancement solutions, have announced a partnership whereby EVD will develop algorithms to enhance full motion video on Z Microsystem’s FPGA-based image processing equipment. Z Microsystems is working with third-party developers to build a library of algorithms to apply to full motion video to enhance and clarify images in real time. These algorithms will support Z Microsystems’ image processing equipment used in unmanned aircraft systems and ISR military applications. EVD will initially provide algorithms for spatial noise reduction and contrast enhancement.
Valerie Chereskin: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
GPS III Navigation Signals Unit Completes Design Review
The mission data unit (MDU) being developed by ITT for the Air Force Global Positioning System program (GPS III) has passed a key milestone with the successful completion of the critical design review (CDR). ITT is a major teammate on the Lockheed Martin team that was selected in May 2008 by the Air Force to build the next-generation GPS III program. The MDU CDR demonstrated that the MDU design meets program requirements and is ready to proceed to the manufacturing phase of the program. The MDU generates all of the navigation signals for military and civil users and maintains the highly precise timing for navigation performance. The CDR was a thorough review of the hardware and software designs and demonstrated complete compliance with the rigorous military standards requirements. The next generation of GPS IIIA satellites will deliver significant improvements over current GPS space vehicles, and will improve position, navigation and timing services for the war fighter and civil users worldwide, providing capabilities yielding superior system security, accuracy and reliability.
Irene Lockwood: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Platform Supports Geospatial Visualization Using Large Data Repositories
Open Solutions Group Inc. (OpenSGI) and United Federal Systems have announced a partnership to provide an integrated platform for OpenSGI’s Enterprise GeoCache Appliance to the Department of Defense. United brings over 20 years of design and engineering experience in custom hardware chassis and components supporting tactical and strategic solutions for federal, state and local governments, and the intelligence community. Geospatial and imagery systems historically had to address the bottleneck problem—too much data to be accessed and delivered via hardware and software. The combination of OpenSGI’s Enterprise GeoCache software and United’s line of high performance hardware servers and workstations will provide the ground breaking technology for geospatial visualization using large data repositories. The Enterprise GeoCache provides a portable solution for geospatial data delivery that delivers the highest resolution data and imagery in seconds. The Enterprise GeoCache includes 40 terabytes of worldwide geospatial data, pre-processed for high speed delivery of maps over the Web. The global dataset consists of NGA holdings and custom products such as commercial satellite, scanned maps, vector data sets, elevation and analytical models, and Open Street Map.
Frank Porcelli: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website Aids in Sharing GIS Content
ESRI announces the launch of arcgis.com, a Website for finding and sharing GIS content, organizing geographic information into groups, and building communities. A new browser-based version of ArcGIS Explorer, ArcGIS Explorer Online, also launches with the site and provides direct access to arcgis.com content. Through arcgis.com, visitors can access a number of free, ready-to-use basemaps for their projects and applications, including community maps that have been built with data from organizations around the world. To create maps and mashups quickly and easily, a JavaScript Web Mapping application is available. ESRI gives users its high-quality basemaps as a starting point, and they can then search ArcGIS online content or other GIS servers and the Web to find additional layers for mashups. These mashups can be shared and consumed by others, including those with the ArcGIS for iPhone mapping application. Additionally, arcgis.com allows people to share their maps and apps with everyone or specific groups that they join to collaborate on specific projects. Users can create their own groups and invite others to join and share their content. A new and exciting ArcGIS application with which to open and view GIS content is ArcGIS Explorer Online. ArcGIS online content can be accessed directly from within ArcGIS Explorer Online to create maps that can then be shared and consumed by a broad community of users, including the iPhone community.
Contract Supports Project Liberty, Distributed Common Ground System
General Dynamics Information Technology has been awarded a $49 million contract to support the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) and Project Liberty. The contract covers three years if all options are exercised. General Dynamics will perform network administration, systems administration, hardware maintenance and logistics and warehouse support for Air Force and Air National Guard DCGS sites, as well as the Project Liberty and squadron operations centers that support Predator and Reaper operations. This support can be performed around the clock if needed.
DCGS is the Air Force’s premier globally networked intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance weapon system. With 20 geographically separated, networked sites, the DCGS produces intelligence information collected by the U-2, RQ-4 Global Hawk, MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1 Predator aircraft. Project Liberty exploitation cells provide sustainable, deployed full motion video processing, exploitation and dissemination cells to joint ground forces at the corps level and below to exploit data collected from Air Force-flown MC-12 Liberty aircraft. The company will support Robins Air Force Base, Ga., with depot operations and program management support to the 578th Aircraft Sustainment Squadron. The General Dynamics-led team includes BOSH Global Services, which will assist General Dynamics with providing support to the enterprise as required.
Mark Meudt: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Updated Exploitation Tools Include Full Motion Video Extension
Overwatch has issued the latest release of its ELT/Series Geospatial Intelligence software, including the new full motion video extension, V-TRAC Basic. The ELT/Series software provides powerful imagery and geospatial exploitation tools for a wide range of applications, including tactical imagery and national geospatial analysis. The latest release, version 20.1, leverages a flexible architecture complemented by new extensions, such as V-TRAC Basic. V-TRAC Basic provides users of ELT/Series’ more advanced products, ELT/3500 and ELT/5500, the ability to receive and analyze full motion video collections and incorporate video analysis with other product extensions such as GeoCatalog and SpotLite. GeoCatalog enables analysts to easily create searchable databases for the organization and management of geospatial data. SpotLite enables analysts to quickly produce and analyze sophisticated 3-D visualizations from imagery. Users of ELT/5500 PRO will receive a new interface to the Mensuration Services Program (MSP) with this latest release. MSP is the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s replacement for the existing Ruler mensuration program. Additionally, users will receive the newly established Department of Defense standard for precision targeting, Common Geo-positioning Services version 2.3, which provides a validated and consistent tool for producing the most accurate geo-coordinates for precision targeting. Overwatch has introduced several other new features and enhancements to the version 20.1 release. New graphic drawing tools have been provided to improve visualization of blast assessment and georeferenced bearing indication. Grid capabilities have been extended to support improved definition and specification.
Sharon Corona: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
