Officials of the Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., announced a $475 million contract to General Dynamics C4 Systems late last week for research and development into the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 3 project.
The contract calls for General Dynamics to perform fabrication, assembly, and coding to complete WIN-T Increment 3 and start moving the program to production and deployment. Support includes evolutionary product integration, testing, and evaluation, Army officials say.
WIN-T Increment 3 will provide mobile, flexible, dynamic tactical networking for dispersed Army forces operating in isolated areas. Building on previous increments, it will support network planning and execution while on-the-move for maneuver, fires, and aviation brigades.
WIN-T Increment 3 also introduces the aerial tier to enhance reliability. WIN-T Increment 3 will improve line-of-sight networking, refine the network architecture, and build the next generation of network planning and monitoring.
The air tier will offload network traffic from overburdened and expensive satellites. With the addition of the air tier, the Army will have a three-tiered WIN-T communication network -- terrestrial, aerial, and celestial.
The key component of WIN-T Increment 3 is the Joint Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (JC4ISR) radio combined with the Highband Networking Waveform (HNW), which improves line-of-sight communications throughput capacity and extends ranges.
WIN-T Increment 3 distributes intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance information via voice, data, and real time video; manages, prioritizes, and protects information through network operations; ensures interoperability with joint, allied, coalition, current force, and commercial voice and data networks; and provides uninterrupted flow of information.
For more information contact General Dynamics C4 Systems online at www.gdc4s.com, or the Army Contracting Command at www.army.mil/acc.
