The Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin [LMT] a contract worth potentially $250 million under the Integrated Space Command and Control (ISC2) system, according to a company statement.
Lockheed Martin will continue to sustain the air defense, missile warning and space defense systems that support the missions of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) under the contract, which was awarded via the service’s Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC). The contract consists of three one-year options. Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Suzanne Smith said yesterday the Air Force has a deadline of Aug. 31, 2014, or 30 days prior to the end of the next fiscal year, to pick up the next one-year option.
Smith said Lockheed Martin modernized the air defense, missile warning and space defense systems by migrating the air defense and missile warning missions to a new architecture in the early years of the contract, which allowed the company to continuously modernize the system through major and minor release cycles. Smith said Lockheed Martin has implemented, and is currently implementing, a number of improvements in both the ISC2 software and hardware as well as accommodated the system for growth in both the number of sensor objects that it can possess as well as the size of the space catalog.
“Software improvements implemented, thus far, have demonstrated a 13-fold improvement in processing speed while increasing accuracy and user efficiency,” Smith said.
ISC2 provides geographically disparate commanders the ability to monitor and assess multi-mission threats concurrently by integrating mission-critical networks between NORAD, NORTHCOM and STRATCOM. The air defense and missile warning missions are part of the Integrated Tactical Warning Attack Assessment mission, which Smith said provides air, missile and space warning information to the United States president and Canada’s prime minster to determine if the North American continent is under attack.
Smith said the space mission system maintains a catalog of space objects and provides tools to support the space situational awareness (SSA) and space defense missions.