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They are coming

A couple of weeks ago, DID noted that Microsoft may be making a push for a larger share of the defense market in the area of interoperability and collaboration. It would appear that those predictions are beginning to come true.

Microsoft has just launched a public relations campaign to highlight the role of the company’s products in the military’s data-sharing and network-centric warfare operations. This push is apparently part of their determination to pursue new work in major military programs, including the $10 billion dollar Net-Centric Enterprise Services contract and $2 billion Space Operations Center Weapon System Integrator contract.

Microsoft officials are citing their spend of $28 billion on R&D in the past seven years, and plans to spend $40 billion on it in the next six years with an emphasis on interoperability. As part of that effort, they cite products that aid data sharing in five military systems. They are:

1. The Army’s Information Dissemination Management-Tactical (IDM-T) software, which lets commanders and soldiers easily find information in 11 applications that provides warfighting data such as intelligence, weather updates and information about artillery stocks.
2. The Army’s Deployed Theater Accountability Software
3. The Navy-Marine Corps Mobilization Processing System
4. The Air Force’s Single Integrated Space Picture system; and
5. The Air Force’s Synchronized Air Power Management (SAPM) system

The $10 billion Net-Centric Enterprise Services initiative will give warfighters access to military and intelligence networks by customizing searches and combining intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data to target and attack enemies.

The Air Force’s $2 billion Air and Space Operations Center Weapon System Integrator contract will manage and update the hardware and software at 17 air and space operations centers worldwide.

for more details, see “Microsoft’s New Market” in Federal Computing Weekly.