SAN DIEGO, 9 May 2006. Engineers at Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) in San Diego won a $51.8 million U.S. Navy contract May 8 to design and demonstrate wideband communication system (WCS) prototypes for a variety of military and other government platforms.
The baseline WCS will be a communication system that networks several sensor nodes and subnetworks at data rates as fast as 70 megabits per second over ranges as far as 70 miles.
The WCS will shorten the sensor-to-command post and command post-to-shooter timeline and allow firing units to fire on the move -- a currently non-existent capability, say officials of the U.S. Department of Defense.
The WCS will provide the warfighter with substantial reach-back capability not tied to congested satellite channels and enable several disparate sub-networks, in common network, to link.
The SAIC Research and Development Division will do the work in St. Petersburg, Fla.; San Diego; California, Md.; Newport News, Va.; and Johnstown, Pa., and will be finished in May 2011.
Awarding the contract is the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, in Dahlgren, Va. The contract number is N00178-06-D-3001.
