FAA hires Concept Solutions for air management work

Concept Solutions LLC won a two-year, $6 million contract to continue upgrading the Federal Aviation Administration's Military Operations Systems.

The systems, called MILOPS, supply online information about U.S. airspace to various civilian and military agencies and general and commercial aviation entities. It lets the FAA, Defense Department, those affected by special use airspace and other special-purpose operations coordinate information.

Under the Broad Information Technology and Telecommunication Services II contract, Concept Solutions will upgrade and manage systems applications, including the Special Use Airspace Management tool, which schedules and monitors charted special use airspace. The company also will improve the data connection between the FAA and Defense Department via an encrypted communications pathway called NIPRNet. It also will upgrade the Special Use Airspace Schedules Data Gateway, which provides online accessibility, and expand the Global Positioning System/Wide Area Augmentation System.

During an earlier phase of the systems upgrade in June, the FAA launched nationwide the new Military Airspace Data Entry system developed by Concept Solutions for the agency's Air Traffic Office of System Operations Security. The Web-based system lets the Defense Department schedule special use airspace, air traffic control assigned airspace and military training routes.

Based in Reston, Va., Concept Solutions is a privately owned company that provides information management and technology consulting services to the federal government, the military and large and mid-sized firms.