A new Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium has been established by leading global companies in aerospace, communications, defense, and information systems in order to develop a common network centric environment, allow for technical interoperability, and provide guidance to develop common standards for the departments or ministries of defense and the intelligence, homeland security, and law enforcement agencies of allied nations. The group noted that some of the most advanced defense systems in the world have been developed over the past decade, yet many of these complex systems exist as standalone islands that were not designed to be interoperable.
The NCOI consortium said it would work with government agencies to complete an analysis of pertinent network architectures, capability needs and mandated open standards to identify commonalities, synergies, conflicts, gaps and potential areas for improvement. The goal would be to develop a secure information management overarching architectural framework / reference model. The initial will be on the GIG, NCOW, ForceNet, C2CNet, LandWarNet, and DCGS projects.
Founding members include BAE Systems, Boeing, CACI, CBT, Cisco Systems, EADS, EMC Corporation, Ericsson, Factiva, Finmeccanica, General Dynamics, HP, Honeywell, IBM, Innerwall, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems Sector, Oracle, Raytheon Company, Rockwell Collins, Saab, SAIC, Smiths Aerospace, Sun Microsystems, Thales and Themis. The Open Group serves as the consortium’s management firm. http://www.ncoic.org/
