Reston, Va.-based government contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. and Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) inked an agreement to combine their visualization technologies to modernize how warfighters make decisions in the battle space, the two said.
The companies said they would provide visualization solutions that synthesize data and present it to decision makers through new graphical means for customers in the US Department of Defense, the US Intelligence community, the US Missile Defense Agency and the US Department of Homeland Security.
Northrop Grumman’s Advanced Concepts Demonstration Laboratory (ACDL) is to perform systems engineering and integration work at its mission systems sector in Virginia.
Northrop Grumman and Mountain View, Calif.-based SGI are to integrate data from disparate sources and create meaningful, interactive visual displays that enable better situational awareness and, ultimately, better decision-making, the companies said.
Combining SGI’s computing and visualization machines with Northrop Grumman’s systems integration expertise and knowledge of agency missions is expected to result in complex models to assess such things as the effects of weather on a battlespace.
“Real-time, big-data machines are becoming more and more necessary to integrate vast data flows in defense and homeland security applications,” said Bob Bishop, chairman and CEO at SGI, in a statement.
Over the next five years, Northrop Grumman said it would use several SGI systems such as high-end Altix servers, Silicon Graphics Prism visualization systems and SGI InfiniteStorage solutions, in addition to forming joint engineering teams to address new applications.
Northrop Grumman brings its systems integration and extensive knowledge of the Defense Department, intelligence and homeland security missions to bear on the team while SGI is to provide visualization, media fusion/collaboration, modeling and simulation and real-time image processing technology for evaluation and characterization.
“This agreement between Northrop Grumman and SGI is a pooling of leading-edge talent in visualization technology,” said Donald Winter, president of Northrop Grumman, in a statement.
“When dealing with a crisis situation, today’s commanders are faced with large volumes of information, and yet must often make informed and justifiable decisions. The intent of this partnership is to develop new means to synthesize, present and distribute information, so as to facilitate effective decision-making in complex situations,” Winter concluded.
