Northrop Grumman to develop Air Force command system

The Defense Department announced late yesterday that Northrop Grumman Corp. had won a pair of contracts to develop the Air Force's E-10A Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) system.

The contracts, worth a total $232.5 million, will cover work through December 2005, according to a Defense Department statement.

Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman won the BMC2 contract after a 15-month competition, company officials said.

The E-10A aircraft is the Air Force's next-generation wide area surveillance platform. It is an important link in the Defense Department's vision of network-centric operations.

The E-10A's BMC2 system provides the information processing capability to handle the aircraft's new multiplatform radar technology and command and control functions. The BMC2 system will also access and correlate sensor data from various sources to give commanders better situational awareness of the battlefield.

In May, Northrop Grumman won a six-year, $888 million contract for the latest phase of the E-10A's multiplatform radar system. The E-10A's radar sensors will provide high-resolution imagery of ground targets and be able to track cruise missiles in flight.

"Northrop Grumman's team has a great deal of experience ranging from operational airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to systems integration," said Northrop Grumman Chief Executive Officer Ronald Sugar in a statement.

Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems will do work on the BMC2 system. Its primary team members are Harris Government Systems and General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems. Technology providers include Alphatech Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., L-3 Communications Corp., Oracle Corp. and Zel Technologies LLC.

With 2003 prime government IT revenues of $4.9 billion, Northrop Grumman ranked No. 2 on Washington Technology's 2004 Top 100 list.