Boeing tackles Air Force threat monitoring task

The Boeing Co. won a $5.6 million Air Force contract to enhance real-time situational awareness in the cockpits of tankers, bombers and heavy-lift aircraft.

Under the follow-on contract, Boeing of Chicago will furnish 75 Combat Track II flight kits to the Air Mobility Command and the Air National Guard. The kits will provide aircrews with real-time monitoring and intelligence, which allows them to respond to threats more quickly and effectively.

The Combat Track II system currently is fielded in several aircraft including the B-52H, B-1B, C-130 and C-17 platforms as well as air operations centers. The Combat Track II system adds a reliable, secure UHF satellite communication and tracking capability to various Air Mobility Command, Air National Guard and Air Combat Command airframes, as well as a moving map for the aircrew.

Combat Track II is part of a family of systems from the Airborne Intelligence section of Boeing's Geospatial Intelligence program in Chantilly, Va. The latest enhancements to the Combat Track II system allow Line-of-Sight Link -16 tactical data to be transferred to aircraft over the horizon from traditional Link-16 networks.

As part of the work, Boeing also will continue to maintain systems integration and depot-level support to the units fielding Combat Track II kits. To date Boeing has delivered more than 250 Combat Track II systems to the Air Force under contracts valued at $20 million.

Boeing, which has more than 159,000 employees and annual revenue of $54.8 billion in fiscal 2005, ranks No. 15 on Washington Technology's 2006 Top 100 list of federal prime contractors.