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FORT BELVOIR, Va., 22 Oct. 2009. The U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) at Fort Belvoir, Va., is set to award a $3.5 million contract to EF Johnson Technologies in Rockville, Md., to integrate secure radio communications and electronic sensors designed to detect weapons of mass destruction (WMD) into a secure wireless network for U.S. Coast Guard boarding parties inspecting large ships.
This contract involves Vessel Boarding Inspection System (VBIS) radio communications, which EF Johnson subsidiary 3e Technologies International is developing to provide Coast Guard and U.S. Navy boarding parties network-centric communications while working in the reinforced steel passage ways and compartments below decks on large commercial surface ships.
DTRA, working with the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare center in Panama City, Fla., is asking EF Johnson to integrate ultra wideband (UWB) capabilities and WMD sensors into the VBIS networked radio system to enable boarding parties to detect and transmit information about nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons of mass destruction back to their host vessels over a secure wireless network for further processing and analysis.
EF Johnson engineers will develop a standard interface protocol and work with WMD sensor manufacturers to design an integrated radio and WMD sensor communications network. They will use ultra wide band radios developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory into the VBIS system.
The VBIS network will capitalize on technologies and design lessons learned from the U.S. Department of Defense Network Centric Enterprise Services Architecture.
Ultimately, EF Johnson engineers must ruggedize the VBIS integrated radio and sensor communications network hardware to meet MIL-STD-882D, MIL-STD-810G, and MIL-STD-901D.
DTRA officials point out that they were not able to compete this contract among several different companies because the EF Johnson 3e Technologies International subsidiary is the only reliable source of this kind of system. The company's VBIS radios demonstrated their ability to below-decks communications during military maritime exercises in 1997 and 1998 called Trident Warrior.
In addition, EF Johnson already has developed much of the existing VBIS equipment under terms of a small business innovative research (SBIR) phase-3 contract.
For more information, contact the Defense Threat Reduction Agency online at www.dtra.mil, or by phone at 703-767-5870. More information about this contract is available online at http://www.fbodaily.com/archive/2009/10-October/23-Oct-2009/FBO-01989555.htm. Also contact EF Johnson online at www.efjohnsontechnologies.com.
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-- Posted by John Keller, jkeller@pennwell.com. www.milaero.com.
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