Northrop Grumman [NOC] recently said it will be competing to design and install the Coast Guard’s Nationwide Automatic Identification System (NAIS), a two-way maritime digital communication system that will improve safety and security along the nation’s littorals.
A Request for Proposals for NAIS Increment 2 is expected to be released next month although this date has slipped to the right before.
Northrop Grumman said its team members for the pursuit include Allied Technology Group, CACI International [CAI], Washington Group International, ICAN, Inc., Sweden’s True Heading AB, Broadpoint, Inc., and GTSI Corp. [GTSI].
“Our team has been preparing for NAIS for nearly three years, and we look forward to providing the Coast Guard with the capabilities to reach its vision,” Mike Twyman, vice president of Northrop Grumman Mission Systems sector’s C3I Systems operating unit, said in a statement.
NAIS will be based on the Automatic Identification System (AIS) technology, a maritime digital broadcast system that continually transmits and receives voiceless exchange of vessel data. AIS is used by the Coast Guard to help track large shipping vessels as they near the coast of the United States.
NAIS is being implemented in three phases. Increment 1 is being led by the Coast Guard and involves shore-based receive only coverage within the nation’s 55 highest priority critical ports and nine coastal areas by early next year. In Increment 2, which Northrop Grumman is pursuing, shore-based receive coverage will be expanded out to 50 nautical miles and a transmit capability will be provided out to 24 nm along the entire U.S. coastline.
Increment 2 will have two separate procurements. A single source award for the design, development, integration, testing and implementation of the core NAIS capability to provide AIS coverage in three Coast Guard Sectors. A second procurement is expected to be a multiple award contract for remote site work and installations to establish nationwide coverage.
A third increment will be designed to extend receive coverage out to 2,000 nm using satellite communication services and VHF services relying on offshore platforms and data buoys. The entire system is supposed to be fully implemented by 2014.
NAIS is considered a major acquisition program by the Department of Homeland Security. Once it is operational, it is expected to be a key piece in improving maritime domain awareness.