Textron enters R&D agreement with US Army

Textron Systems announced on 6 January that its Advanced Information Solutions business has entered a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the US Army's Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC).

Textron will work with the centre's Intelligence Enterprise Branch of Information & Intelligence Warfare Directorate (I2WD) for developing warfighter-relevant cloud technologies. These technologies will be aligned with usability enhancements within the current Distributed Common Ground System-Army (DCGS-A) baseline.

Textron will be integrating its Multi-INT Sensor Cloud solution with developmental cloud architecture by I2WD. A follow-on cyber solution has also been planned. The Sensor Cloud solution supports tasking, visualisation, processing and ingestion of multi-INT sensor data feeds and sensors as standardised Department of Defense formatted messages. It features an open, extensible, Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise (IC-ITE) compliant architecture that simplifies integration of disparate multi-INT data feeds and can ingest millions of messages per hour.

The solution is extensible through development of sensor or platform-specific gateways that provide mediation services for specific protocols. Leveraging evolving technologies and combining them with a unique level of experience in programs such as PM-DCGS-A, and the Special Operations Forces community, Textron Systems can accelerate the integration of tactical sensors and messaging systems, as well as national level data sources and feeds, into the army cloud for collection and exploitation.

Steve Overly, senior vice president and general manager, Textron Systems Advanced Information Solutions, said: 'Our team has been the primary provider of visualisation, analysis and interoperability capabilities to the DCGS-A program for nearly a decade, and we are using this experience to ensure Multi-INT Sensor Cloud can be seamlessly integrated into both tactical and strategic army cloud architectures.'

He added: 'At the same time, we are leveraging advanced visualisation technologies and a user-centred design paradigm to ensure efficient analyst and operator workflows using thin client widgets accessible from anywhere on the network.'