Hughes to Conduct Research to Back Army Blue Force Tracking System Upgrades; Rick Lober Quoted

Hughes Network Systems has received a two-year cooperative research and development agreement from the U.S. Army to perform studies and recommend network updates for a system architecture used to monitor friendly military forces.

Hughes said Wednesday it will provide recommendations to increase operational resiliency and interoperability and facilitate communications in contested areas under the third phase of the service’s Blue Force Tracking program and as part of an open system architecture consortium.

“This contract represents great progress in the military’s efforts to achieve greater interoperability across communications platforms,” said Rick Lober, vice president and general manager of Hughes’ defense and intelligence systems.

“We look forward to working closely with the Army in their effort to upgrade the critical system technology that protects our warfighters and allies.”

Hughes said it expects the final CRADA reports to come before the competitive acquisition of the next-generation BFT platform in 2020 or 2021.