The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded a $3.2 million contract to BAE Systems to develop a new framework of jam-resistant, reliable networked communications as part of the Communications in Contested Environments (C2E) program, the company said on Thursday.
The contract will develop a new open system architecture (OSA) for the first phase of the C2E program.
The OSA will be designed to be more flexible than existing services, allowing new and more effective communications platforms to aid allied forces in contested environments. It will support ongoing, evolutionary technology upgrades that match application demands and changing adversary threats, BAE said.
“With our role in the C2E program, we’re not only addressing technological threats that we anticipate our adversaries will use tomorrow, we’re looking decades into the future and building a system that can adapt and flex to support a high level of change and advancement in the years ahead,” Michael V. Beltrani, director of Business Development at BAE, said in a statement.
“We have more than 25 years of proven, fielded experience in networked communications–Link 16 in particular–that will be a significant strength in this effort.”
The DARPA C2E program seeks to use the skills and vision that has advanced the U.S. commercial communications industry and apply similar proficiency to protect military communications against rapidly evolving technological threats.
The C2E program is also anticipated to seek ideas in two other technical areas: heterogeneous networking capability to improve pervasive services while accommodating legacy platform capabilities and an environment that allows the incorporation of third party technology and the rapid refresh of capability.