Nashua, N.H., 5 September 2006. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's (NGA) InnoVision Directorate has selected BAE Systems to develop a Web-based surveillance and targeting system. The system will rapidly identify battlefield targets and other possible threats and greatly speed decision-making by intelligence analysts and military personnel.
NGA awarded BAE Systems a $47 million contract, including options, to deliver the Global Net-Centric Surveillance and Targeting (GNCST) system. "Gun Coast," as it's commonly called, uses a Web-based interface on a secured computer network to gather real-time data from multiple intelligence sensors and process it into useable data for the military and intelligence communities.
"Once GNCST is operational, an end user might ask the system to locate surface-to-air missiles that appeared in a specific region within the past 45 seconds," says Scott Boyce, BAE Systems' GNCST program manager in San Diego. "In as little as a few seconds, GNCST would respond with target coordinates for those missiles."
BAE Systems leads a team supported by Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, and Dragon Research. The initial contract is a 15-month program with four additional options. The next step will be to transition the system from a lab and demonstration environment to an operational system and into the hands of the war fighter.
