BAE to help Air Force, Navy coordinate missions

Under a $43 million contract, BAE Systems Inc. will help develop a system that the Air Force and Navy will use to coordinate their joint tactical missions.

Under a $43 million contract, BAE Systems Inc. will help develop a system that the Air Force and Navy will use to coordinate their joint tactical missions.

BAE will assist the services as they refine the requirements and improve the architecture of the Joint Mission Planning System. The project is a cooperative software development effort undertaken by government and industry.

The framework, which is based on service-oriented architecture, will enable the two services to engage in collaborative mission planning, BAE officials said in a statement.

The Air Force's Electronic Systems Center awarded the contract under the service's Mission Planning Enterprise Contract. That program's goal is to transition existing mission-planning systems into a single framework and facilitate network-centric operations.

BAE's teammates are Boeing Co., DCS Corp., ESRI and Sparta Inc. The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division and the Ogden Air Logistics Center are also involved in the effort.

BAE ranks No. 12 on Washington Technology's 2008 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.