Lockheed Martin nabs $213 million net-centric warfare contract

First phase called for developing the software architecture that would integrate several legacy analytical applications and allow better collaboration across war-planning network.

Tech Success: Green-card forms are an online 'go'

You don't have to be an immigrant in the United States to know that renewing a green card can be a long, drawn-out process.

Let the games begin

It's an unusual situation for a game developer, but Doug Whatley isn't complaining. The chief executive officer of BreakAway Games Ltd. In Hunt Valley, Md., said only a quarter of his company's business comes from its entertainment titles, such as "Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Battle," and "Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom." The rest comes from Uncle Sam.

DHS awards contracts for commercial anti-missile systems

BEA Systems North America Inc. and Northrop Grumman Corp. have received contracts to develop and test prototype systems for protecting commercial aircraft from shoulder-fired missiles.

Las Vegas becomes latest mesh network adopter

Las Vegas is set to flip the switch on a wireless broadband pilot based on mesh networking technology.

National Archives chooses Xacta for security management

Xacta Corp. will supply security compliance and risk management software to the National Archives and Records Administration, the company said today. Terms of the three-year, agency-wide agreement were not immediately available.

Cisco to buy network management developer

Cisco Systems Inc. plans to acquire privately held P-Cube Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., for $200 million in cash and options. P-Cube develops software for analyzing and managing network traffic.

Unmanned air vehicles go organic

Honeywell International Inc. completes testing of an unmanned air vehicle that the Defense Department hopes to use for gathering surveillance and protecting troops.

General Dynamics to develop advanced tablet PCs

General Dynamics Corp. won a contract to develop 10 prototype tablet computers powered by liquid fuel cells to replace the Air Force's ground air traffic control computers.

Report: Government spending on ERP will rise

The federal market for enterprise resource planning solutions will grow to $7.7 billion in fiscal 2009, according to a research report from Input Inc. due out next week.

Lockheed Martin teams with ESRI on GIS solutions

Lockheed Martin Corp. is the first federal systems integrator to join a new program for developing geospatial intelligence solutions based on technology from Redlands, Calif.-based ESRI Inc.

DHS, GAO don't see eye-to-eye on EA

The Government Accountability Office today released a report acknowledging the progress the Homeland Security Department has made in developing an enterprise architecture but criticizing the blue print for lacking sufficient detail.

Windows XP Service Pack 2 held up ? again

Microsoft Corp. yesterday delayed yet again its oft-delayed Windows XP Service Pack 2, this time postponing the patch's distribution through the company's Automatic Update service.

Defense buys Linux clusters for combat simulation

The Defense Department is deploying a pair of 256-processor Linux clusters from Bluffdale, Utah-based Linux Networx Inc. to simulate combat operations on a virtual battlefield, the company said today.

McAfee to buy vulnerability management company

McAfee Inc. has agreed to buy Foundstone Inc. of Mission Viejo, Calif., for $86 million in cash, the company said today. The acquisition gives the security firm a foothold in the growing vulnerability management market.

Lockheed Martin, Raytheon to develop ground sensors

Raytheon Co., a subcontractor on the Defense Department's Future Combat Systems program, has made five awards for the design and development of ground sensor technology. Lockheed Martin Corp. won two, and Raytheon's Network Centric Systems division won three.

Survival Guide: Ret. Lt. Gen. Robert Flowers, former chief of engineers and commanding general of the Army Corps of Engineers

As the corps' chief of engineers, Robert Flowers learned better than most that in a post-9/11 world, infrastructure protection is a national priority.

Tech Success: Integrator builds net-centric test bed

If the Defense Department remains intent on spiraling network-centric capabilities to the warfighter, then it has a major challenge on its hands, according to some experts.

Enterprise architecture: Where do we go from here?

As agencies put into place the first blueprints of their IT environments, systems integrators and other contractors face the question of what happens next. Agencies will need help creating more detailed versions of their architectures. SAIC, for example, is already helping DHS with a second version of its plan. But the importance of this work goes well beyond the creation of an enterprise architecture. Contractors now must focus on winning the follow-up -- and possibly more lucrative -- work of implementing enterprise architectures.

On the Edge News Briefs

Anyone get that plate number? Active Recognition Technologies Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz., has developed software for identifying and comparing license-plate numbers against watch lists.