Future Combat Systems (FCS) technology acceleration good to Arizona

July 25, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Arizona, Boeing, DARPA, Department of Defense, Restructuring, SBIR, SMDC, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, development program 

This article describes the economic effect of the Army decision to begin pushing components of the multi-system Future Combat System (FCS) out-the-door faster. Due to this decision several hundred million dollars are flowing to Arizona companies earlier then originally planned by the Army. The two systems with the most effect are the non-line of sight missile system that uses a box launcher with integrated fire control and several unmanned systems. The Army benefits two ways by this type of decision; first, they get needed technology upgrades into the field earlier; and secondly they get testing under real world conditions.

Picture by Derek Farr

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Navy continues CEC work

July 21, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Contract Awards, IT, Raytheon, U.S. Navy, development program 

Raytheon was awarded a contract today to continue work on Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC).  See a press release here.  CEC is a natural development of the work the Navy has done with datalinks for the last 50 plus years.  By the Nineties the Navy was able to share the sensor picture from one ship with others over a tactical data link.  Even during the Gulf War this was not good enough for targeting.  CEC’s goal is to develope a netted sensor grid that will support providing a fire control solution good enough that one ship can guide a missile launched from another.  The Navy was installing CEC on selected ships by the end of the Twentieth Century. For more on CEC see this.

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