Northrop Grumman [NOC] said yesterday that it has been awarded $81 million for Command and Control (C2) upgrades to the Air Force’s Air Operations Center (AOC) Weapon System modernization program.
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| Northrop Grumman will perform part of the C2 upgrades at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass. Photo: Air Force. |
Northrop Grumman will streamline and secure both legacy and planned future computing systems for AOCs at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Hanscom AFB, Mass. and at the Air Combat Command, Langley AFB, Va. The company said its upgrades will reduce the amount of hardware needed and increase system manageability. It will also create a common software environment, which will reduce the amount of manual exchange between systems. Northrop Grumman said the changes will reduce long-term costs and allow for quicker integration of new applications.
The AOC weapons system modernization program received Milestone B approval in October, which allows the project to proceed to the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase.
This new award is an option exercised from the initial March 2012 contract. The company initially received $120 million that month. Northrop Grumman Operating Unit Director, C2 Mission Systems Winter McCall previously valued the AOC modernization program, including all options, at $504 million. (Defense Daily, Sept. 18, 2012)
Northrop Grumman said the key activities in 2014 on the award will be finishing the critical design review and continuing training sessions for future users of the system. The company also plans to integrate feedback from training sessions into the system.
“We look forward to continued collaboration with the Air Force to realize the affordability benefits and a fully integrated, evolvable net-centric capability,” Mike Twyman, a vice president for Northrop Grumman Information Systems, said yesterday in a statement.