LOS ANGELES - The US Air Force announced that it has awarded an Indefinite Quantity Indefinite Delivery (IDIQ) contract to Silvus Technologies. Under the $905M award ceiling, Silvus will supply its StreamCaster Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) radio systems in support of the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) program.
First conceived in 2018, ABMS represents the first effort by US Defense Department to create a "combat cloud" MANET, transposing the "Internet of Things" (IOT) model from civilian technology to the battlefield. The open architecture family of systems aims to realize the vision of Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2), enabling any sensor to inform any shooter in any domain—land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. The development of the ABMS system currently entails a series of experiments, each one building on lessons learned from the previous, and spiraling in scale and complexity. The first experiment took place at Eglin Air Force Base in December 2019, and future experiments are expected to occur once every 4 months, fostering rapid innovation and maturation.
A critical component of the ABMS architecture is a MANET referred to by the program as "meshONE". MeshONE is a high bandwidth tactical edge network which provides connectivity between fixed, mobile, airborne, dismounted, and maritime assets, including Unmanned Air and Ground Vehicles (UAVs and UGVs). Silvus provided the meshONE network during the highly successful December 2019 experiment, and this new IDIQ contract provides a vehicle for procurement of additional StreamCaster MANET equipment to support future events.
"This announcement comes as Silvus has been recognized for several major US Army acquisitions in support of the Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV), Integrated Tactical Network (ITN), and Integrated Virtual Augmentation System (IVAS) programs. We are excited for the opportunity to leverage our cutting edge MANET technology to solve some of the Air Force's toughest communications challenges," said Silvus Director of DoD Programs, Andy Narusewicz. "Silvus is proud to have contributed to the success of the first ABMS experiment and looks forward to stretching the capabilities of our MANET further in future events."
