RESTON, Va., and OMAHA, Neb., June 24, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) will open a state-of-the-art environmental-integration facility in Omaha, Neb. next month that will provide an environment to test and integrate systems that provide decision-makers the information essential to plan and execute missions.
The facility will allow Northrop Grumman to demonstrate how weather systems for military customers can be integrated into command-and-control systems. It will provide interactive "what-if" scenarios to show the impact of weather on planning any military mission to engage a target threat.
Northrop Grumman built the facility, along with a service-oriented architecture-integration facility in Colorado Springs, Colo., to fulfill the company's commitment to its military customers to deliver integrated, interoperable systems.
The environmental-integration facility (EIF) will use the latest software tools to integrate weather updates and forecasts into command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems to provide decision-makers with the necessary environmental information to plan and execute a mission. Mission planning involves identifying a target, deciding on a weapon, determining a platform of delivery, and now effectively factoring in the current weather situation to contribute to a successful target engagement.
The goal is for weather data to be fully integrated into command-and-control mission-planning systems as well as the common operating picture, providing total situational awareness for all commanders. Our commitment is to provide tailored weather products and information for decision-makers and provide the products through a direct interface with other major command-and-control systems throughout the military.
Joint Environmental Toolkit, one of the anticipated weather programs to be supported in the EIF, is presently in source selection at the Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base. Phase 1 of the acquisition involved award of two contracts in July 2004 to deliver a weather weapon-system architecture to the U.S. Air Force for assessment of how operators can use weather products to support running the battle at the strategic, force and unit levels. Northrop was awarded one of the contracts under Phase I and is competing for the down-select award for Phase II, which is scheduled for October 2005.
"The Joint Environmental Toolkit is a strategic program that can benefit many other U.S. Department of Defense command-and-control programs and commercial environmental programs," said Bob Pattishall, vice president and general manager, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems. "With this facility and our experience developing mission-enterprise architectures, we believe we can develop and deploy more capable, reliable, secure and timely next-generation integrated weather solutions than our competition."
The environmental-integration facility, in support of Northrop Grumman's Omaha operations, will incorporate a wide array of innovative commercial technologies related to network-centric operations. In addition, the facility will promote algorithm development for improved weather forecasting and simulation, and provide interactive war-game scenarios in support of operator training.
The Northrop Grumman Joint Environmental Toolkit team includes the company's Mission Systems and Information Technology sectors. Other team members are Sonalysts, Waterford, Conn.; Accenture, Chicago, Ill.; Anteon, Fairfax, Va.; CollaborX, Colorado Springs, Colo.; Sumaria, Danvers, Mass.; CSSS, Omaha, Neb.; MOSI, Omaha, Neb.; and ESRI, Redlands, Calif.
Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, based in Reston, Va., is a global integrator of complex, mission-enabling systems and services for defense, intelligence and civil government markets. The sector's technology leadership and expertise spans areas such as strategic systems, including ICBMs; missile defense; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; command and control; technical services; and training.