New tactical weather system on Navy's horizon

General Dynamics Information Technology will help design and develop technology that provides tailored meteorological and oceanographic information for Navy commanders under a new contract worth $22.2 million, company officials has announced.

The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command awarded the contract for General Dynamics to support the Naval Integrated Tactical Environmental System Next Generation program.

The contract could be worth up to $67.7 million over five years if all options are exercised, according to the company.

General Dynamics will design, develop, integrate, test and support the deployment of NITES-Next system. The system displays custom meteorological and oceanographic products on mission-planning and command-and-control systems.

NITES-Next is a net-centric solution based on a service-oriented architecture, according to General Dynamics. The solution will use geographic information systems, support physics-based modeling and implement an advanced database design.

The system is designed to make meteorological and oceanographic products available across the Global Information Grid in a joint environment. The work will be performed in Newport, R.I.; San Diego, Calif.; and Bay St. Louis, Miss.