Northrop Grumman Applies Commercial Technology To Military Projects

What do you do after you've been awarded a $408 million contract to support the military's networked battlefield concept?

Go to the store and pick up some off-the-shelf-hardware.

That's what Northrop Grumman says will do the trick as it builds the USAF's Battle Management Command and Control system (BMC2).

Federal Computer Week reports the aerospace contractor will demonstrate to military officials that Windows, Sun Microsystems, Solaris and Linux are all perfectly viable, perfectly safe platforms for the Air Force to use in running battles big and small.

In fact, Northrop is betting that commercial technology will prove to be faster and more reliable than solutions offered by Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

It's not an unproven concept, according to executives at Northrop Grumman. Already, they've used commercially-available technology from what was once Compaq Computers (now merged with Hewlett-Packard) to build the USAF's Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System.

Over the next ten months, Northrop will identify components -- both hardware and software -- to be used in developing the BMC2 concept. By next October, the company should move into the design and development phase, according to Northrop Grumman executives.

Processing the gigabytes and gigabytes of raw battlefield data including enemy movements and target sorting, the BMC2 concept uses commercially-available laptop and desktop computers in the field and aboard Boeing's upcoming E-10A Command and Control aircraft, currently being developed.

"The onboard [BMC2] suite will play a key role in rapidly correlating onboard sensor data with off-board information so onboard decision-makers can act immediately against critical threats," said Lt. Gen. William Hobbins, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for warfighting integration. He was quoted in Federal Computer Week.

The E-10A is expected to begin test flights in four years and could be operational in nine.

FMI: www.af.mil