U.S. Air Force selects Northrop Grumman to research service-oriented architecture interoperability for integrated air and space command and control

Posted by John McHale
SAN DIEGO, 31 Jan. 2011. The U.S. Air Force selected Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC) to demonstrate information interoperability among different implementations of service-oriented architecture (SOA) information technology (IT) systems across the air and space command and control domains.
Under the contract awarded by the Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome Research Site, Rome, N.Y., Northrop Grumman will conduct technology experiments to show methods that allow distributed SOA-based IT infrastructures to operate as a larger, virtually integrated command and control (C2) system. The company will explore community of interest-based data models, information protocols, and message exchange standards so that specified services can be best accessed and managed across the enterprise. Northrop Grumman will also examine evolving information technologies and common integrated C2 operational threads within and across the air and space warfighting domains.
"This research will enable coordination and synchronization of information and application services to meet the demands of warfighting missions," says Mike Twyman, vice president of integrated command, control, communications, and intelligence systems for Northrop Grumman's Information Systems sector. "By partnering with Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome Research Site, we will jointly recommend and demonstrate novel strategies to manage and orchestrate data flow and content delivery across the realms of air and space command and control."