Army presses forward with command post modernization
General Dynamics C4 Systems has won a two-year contract with a maximum potential value of $78 million for the continued development and enhancement of the Command Post of the Future system.
The Army has awarded General Dynamics C4 Systems a two-year contract with a maximum potential value of $78 million for the continued development and enhancement of the Command Post of the Future system in an effort to create a common collaborative operational setting that enables users to see and share real-time information, the company said in an Oct. 6 news release.
The Command Post of the Future, or CPOF, is an executive-level decision support system that provides situational awareness and collaborative tools, the announcement stated.
In a single, integrated environment, commanders and decision makers can analyze information, share thoughts and evaluate courses of action from geographically dispersed locations, it said.
As part of the planned enhancements, General Dynamics will significantly expand the CPOF’s collaboration capabilities. Users will be able to see and share information from multiple control systems, including ground, aviation, logistics, fires and airspace control systems, the announcement said.
The company also will field the next-generation command and control architecture that can increase the number of users sharing the same information from hundreds to thousands. This will allow users who are purposely or inadvertently disconnected from the network to continue their collaborative efforts without interruption to operations or loss of data.
The work to enhance the collaborative command and control capabilities for the CPOF system directly supports the Army's Mission Command Collapse initiative in which several mission command and control systems are collapsed into a consolidated product line.
Developing and fielding user-friendly command and control systems such as CPOF has given thousands of users the ability to share their workspace displays and data in real time, contributing to greater operational efficiency, said Kevin Merrigan, vice president of Battle Management Systems for General Dynamics C4 Systems.
"By enhancing and expanding CPOF's capabilities, warfighters will be able to communicate better and plan and execute missions faster and more effectively than ever before," he said.
The original contract for the CPOF project was awarded to General Dynamics in 2007.