General Dynamics to support Navy fusion center

General Dynamics Corp. will refine the process through which the Navy’s weapons-development arm integrates data to identify and respond to threats under a $95.2 million contract.

Under the agreement, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems will furnish research, development and operations assistance to the Information Fusion Center at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, Calif., company officials said in an announcement today.

Information fusion in a military context is the process through which correlating data from multiple sources is combined to form valuable intelligence for operational forces.

The work includes research and development, integration and testing, and continual improvements to fusion operations within the NAWCWD Information Fusion Center. The General Dynamics-led team will provide training for hardware and software, and also furnish independent verification and validation of sensors and systems.

General Dynamics plans to use its Quarterback Information Fusion approach on the project. The approach consists of a service-oriented architecture designed for so-called plug-and-play addition of fusion services and capabilities.

The company’s team includes Raytheon Network Centric Systems; Northrop Grumman Information Technology; Whitney, Bradley and Brown; New Directions Technology; International Association of Virtual Organizations, Research and Scientific; and Advanced Fusion Technologies.

General Dynamics, of Falls Church, Va., ranks No. 6 on Washington Technology’s 2008 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.