Northrop Grumman [NOC] recently submitted its proposal for the Marine Corps’ Common Aviation Command and Control System (CAC2S), according to a company statement.
The CAC2S will provide a complete modernization of the Marine Air Command and Control System and will replace dissimilar legacy systems with a common, open, modular and scalable design based on proven, high-technology readiness level hardware and software components.
The Marine Corps is expected to pick a winner of the competition by the end of September. In addition to Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics [GD], Boeing [BA] and a team of Thales–Raytheon [RTN] are also believed to be bidding for the program.
Northrop Grumman’s offering builds on, and enhances, the communications, processing and display functionality previously developed and also integrates critical sensor and data communication capabilities including Link 16, the Composite Tracking Network and AN/TPS-59 and AN/TPS-63 radars.
The system can scale up to the much larger Tactical Aviation Command and Control Center variant without additional core electronics equipment at the operations center. Northrop Grumman’s network design scales up to 216 workstations by using a series of fault-tolerant Ethernet circuits.
Northrop Grumman’s CAC2S solution offers the following distinguishing features:
· Robust TYQ-23 air command and control (C2) software.
· Real-time track management software with customizable track prioritization capability.
· Productivity enhancement tools including tactical dashboards.
· Virtualization and high assurance equipment consolidation strategies.
· Advanced simulation and combat operational mission and training tools.