Contract Award: General Dynamics to maintain U.S. Army's Common Ground Station system

News Report

As announced in a recent press release, General Dynamics has been awarded a five-year, $47 million follow-on contract to update and maintain the operational readiness of all Common Ground Stations (CGS) for the U.S. Army. General Dynamics will provide the spare parts, assemblies, engineering support and other logistics needed to keep the CGS fleet technically current and fully operational worldwide.

The System

Common Ground Stations are deployed by U.S. Army to assist commanders in the collection, analysis and distribution of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information gathered by airborne radar aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and other sensors.

The upgraded version of the system enables high quality imagery and video at ultra low bandwidth, directly to the soldier, providing multiple real time video feeds, Import/Export of all common imagery formats including NITF (National Imagery Transmission Format), and integrated transmit/receive imagery products across the network.

The Context

In 1996, the U.S. Army awarded the original Common Ground Station system contract to General Dynamics, ordering 102 systems. The first Common Ground Station was delivered to U.S. Army in 2000. In 2005, General Dynamics received the first contract to supply logistics and maintenance support for the fleet of Common Ground Stations.

Since 1996, General Dynamics' Common Ground Stations have been deployed in support of U.S. Forces operations, including Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, Global War on Terrorism, Bosnia/Kosovo, U.S. Forces Korea, and U.S. Forces Europe.
Comments

Mark Showah, director of Integrated Systems for General Dynamics C4 Systems, said, “This award reflects the continuing confidence our customer has in the system and the relevant capabilities it provides in support of vital Army and joint missions around the world.”

References: General Dynamics (1,2,3)