BAE Systems to Define Enhancements to Mission Planning Framework

SAN DIEGO — A BAE Systems-led team is one of two entrants selected for the next phase of a program to enhance mission planning in U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps fixed-wing aircraft operations.

The Air Force’s Electronic Systems Center, based at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, awarded BAE Systems a $3 million contract to refine requirements and improve the architecture of the current Joint Mission Planning System (JMPS) framework to enable network-centric operations.

“The software will result in a tailorable and reconfigurable framework that will improve system stability, memory management, and performance,” said Jim Rower, BAE Systems vice president for Defense Systems in San Diego. “Planners and pilots will be able to more quickly and effectively map mission routes. The net-centric framework increases situational awareness by increasing the amount of shared tactical data between the aircraft and operations centers.”

JMPS is a cooperative software development effort between the Air Force and Navy to centralize mission planning across military branches.

BAE Systems leads a team of industry and government experts from the Boeing Co., Sparta, Ogden Air Logistics Center, ESRI, and DCS Inc. The final down-select for the program is expected in February 2008, when the Air Force will select one contractor for full implementation of the JMPS framework enhancement.