DARPA SELECTS CONTRACTOR FOR THE BATTLEFIELD AWARENESS AND DATA DISSEMINATION ADVANCED CONCEPT TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has
tentatively selected Computing Devices International,
Bloomington, Minn., for Phase Two of the Battlefield Awareness
and Data Dissemination (BADD) Advanced Concept Technology
Demonstration program. The selection is tentative pending
completion of final negotiations; the team could receive
approximately $30 million for this phase.
Team members include Pacific Sierra Research, Santa Monica,
Calif.; TASC, Reading, Mass.; ITT Industries, Ft. Wayne, Ind.;
Alpha Tech, Burlington, Mass; Boeing, Seattle, Wash.; General
Dynamics, Warren, Mich.; Alphatech Inc., Burlington, Mass.;
Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp., Austin, Texas;
CTA Inc., Rockville, Md.; Electrospace Systems Inc., Richardson,
Texas; and Secure Computing Corporation, Roseville, Minn..
The goal of BADD is to empower warfighters at echelons from
the Task Force Commander down to Battalion, and possibly below
(especially mobile warfighters), by providing them with advanced
battlefield awareness applications driven by near-real-time data
and delivered by advanced data dissemination methods. The goal
of the battlefield awareness part of BADD is to provide
warfighters with the comprehensive awareness necessary to
dominate the battlefield, including the status of enemy,
friendly, and neutral forces, based on greater access to near-
real-time data. The goal of the data dissemination part of
BADD is to use advances in direct digital broadcast satellites
and tactical and backbone point-to-point communications to
support a dissemination concept that delivers data to the
warfighters workstation. The intelligent software agents
acquiring and delivering the information will select out of the
wide broadcast stream only that data useful to the warfighters
area of interest and mission. Technology will insure that the
right information is readily available when needed by the
warfighter.
The Program Director, Dr. Robert Douglass, noted, We are
excited about kicking off this program. We believe it will be a
significant advance toward achieving the Joint Staff's goal of
providing a fused, real-time, true representation of the
battlespace to the warrior.
