 USJFCOM
signs cooperative research and development agreement with
Raytheon
U.S. Joint Forces Command signed a cooperative research
and development agreement with Raytheon to collaborate
and conduct basic, applied and advanced research to address
some of the challenges joint warfighters face in the urban
environment.
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By Robert Pursell
USJFCOM Public Affairs
(NORFOLK,
Va. - Nov. 8, 2006) - U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM)
signed a cooperative
research and development agreement (CRADA) with Raytheon
earlier this week to address some of the difficult and
emerging challenges joint warfighters face in the urban
environment.
A
CRADA represents a non-Federal Acquisition Regulation
legal agreement between USJFCOM and one or more non-government
parties, such as private industry and academia. CRADAs
offer both parties an opportunity to share knowledge, personnel
and facilities when conducting mutually beneficial research
and development (R&D).
The CRADA between USJFCOM and Raytheon is a two-year cooperative
agreement, with three one-year options, focused on developing
a nationally accessible operations-oriented test bed for
exploration and rapid deployment of net-centric capabilities
and components for use in urban environments.
Various
sites throughout Indiana, including Indiana National
Guard's Muscatatuck Urban Training Center and Camp Atterbury
facilities, the Naval Surface Warfare Center located at
Crane, Ind., and facilities owned by Purdue University
will serve as this test bed. Raytheon will provide USJFCOM
network access to the Indiana test bed at their Suffolk
offices.
As part of the agreement, USJFCOM and Raytheon will provide
scientific, engineering, and
operational expertise as needed. Both will also provide
material, equipment, concepts, scenarios, modeling and
simulation tools, and network access to facilitate experimentation
and evaluation of capabilities and concepts.
Dr. Russ Richards, who heads the USJFCOM Office of Research
and Technology Applications (ORTA), explained the importance
of this CRADA.
"Joint Forces Command is the executive agent for
joint urban operations and to really explore new concepts
and new capabilities that support urban operations we need
to do experimentation. But, we don't have a place that
we can do live experimentation very well," he said.
"This
CRADA will be partnering with Raytheon, but there are other
players will be working with us to develop this true live
urban operations test bed up in Indiana."
The Muscatatuck Urban Training Center is an ideal urban
environment for joint concept development and experimentation
on urban operations. It's a complete town consisting of
approximately 70 buildings, a hospital, power station,
and subterranean tunnels located on a thousand acres of
rural, isolated property in the heart of Indiana.
The Camp Atterbury installation is the home base for many
Army National Guard and United States Army Reserve units
that train and mobilize in Indiana. Camp Atterbury offers
the unit commander the support required to function as
a complete unit for mission training.
Dr. Richard Carter, science and technology advisor for
USJFCOM's Joint Urban Operations Office, said the command
will benefit by using the sites to experiment with new
urban-related technologies.
"We're going to have access to both Camp Atterbury
and Muscatatuck. Basically the National Guard troops who
will be training there will be testing our technologies," he
said.
"It's the Indiana National Guard that's giving us
access to Muscatatuck and Camp Atterbury. Raytheon is providing
us a lot of their urban-related technologies that they
want us to test and access to their network operations
data center. We're bringing subject matter experts and
technology to the table also," said Carter.
USJFCOM will also have access to the Crane Division, Naval
Surface Warfare Center, focused on harnessing the power
of technology for the warfighter, and Purdue University,
which will offer its facilities as needed.
The agreement with Raytheon is the fifth USJFCOM has entered
since the Office of the Secretary of Defense delegated
technology transfer
authority (TTA) to the command last
year.
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