By Ann Roosevelt
Look for Boeing‘s [BA] Network and Space systems, a business area within Boeing Defense Space and Security, to continue making certain select acquisitions in future, according to the unit’s chief engineer.
“You’re going to find that as you’re going to see Boeing ‘selectively vertically integrate,’ Gregg Martin, vice president and chief engineer for Boeing Network and Space Systems, told Defense Daily in an interview.
“The last 10-15 years we’ve been more about being a prime contractor and integrating capabilities and what you’re going to find is that we’re going to take some of those key capabilities that are really important for the systems to operate and do more of that on our own and so that means you’re going to see, have seen and are going to see more certain select acquisitions.
As part of Boeing’s strategy to expand its presence in the cyber and intelligence markets, for example, last year Boeing acquired eXMeritus Inc., a Fairfax, Va.-based company that provides hardware and software to federal government and law enforcement organizations for sharing information securely across classified and unclassified networks and systems.
Integrating new companies technically into the organization is part of his responsibility. Martin is responsible for technical excellence across the entire business portfolio of five businesses and some subsidiary that make up the approximately $13 billion a year business area.
Martin’s job encompasses a number of things: “First, making sure development programs are staying on track technically. I work across to make sure we’re investing in the right technology aligned with what our customers’ needs and capabilities are and then I think about where we’re trying to take the business and making sure the engineering skill mix is the right one, that we’re bringing in the right, new energetic, enthusiastic engineers and other skills needed to grow the business.”
He also gets a look at promising future technologies, though he can’t talk about them. “I get to get involved with all the up front really wild technologies,” he says.
Until April, Martin was vice president and program manager of Boeing’s Army Brigade Combat Team Modernization–the former Future Combat System, building a system that linked equipment to a network and to soldiers. That program was reorganized. Boeing remains the prime contractor.
The business unit comprises specific areas such as space and intelligence systems that mostly builds communication and sensor satellites.
“We’ve built 265 satellites to date,” Martin said. “We have something like 2,500 years of on-orbit satellite experience.”
Boeing built the International Space Station and last week NASA and the International Space Station Team was presented with the 2009 Robert J. Collier Trophy by the National Aeronautic Association.
Networks had to be created to run satellites, no matter what their mission.
Tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance is another area of the business that puts sensor and communications suites together and integrates information and then communicates it to wherever it needs to go, he said. That work is complemented by Boeing’s Military Aircraft part of the business.
The unit recently delivered the 500th unit of Combat Track 11, which is a kit that goes onto bombers and fighters and has high bandwidth capability that connects both the airborne layer to the ground layer and space layer.
There’s a ground component as well, such as the Brigade Combat Team Modernization Ground Mobile Radio, and SBInet, an effort for secure borders under the Department of Homeland Security.
Missile Defense and its secure network is also part of the unit.
The unit also has an underwater component, with several capabilities in unmanned underwater vehicles that take information and communicate it up to a ship and then back to land. All that is integrated.
Martin has 27 years of experience in integration efforts, and said it all starts with doing the right system engineering up front. “If you do that, the integration, which is the tail end, is generally speaking, pretty easy.”
Actually, it starts even earlier with modeling and simulation. “We use that capability both in space, air and ground domains to help customers,” he said. Modeling and simulation develop some potential solutions and the company and customer can see if it’s what they want. Based on that, the next phase is to get to specific requirements, system engineering and architectural work.
“We have a great portfolio being across all these domains and being able to link all these networks together from underwater all the way up to space and our growth areas are cyber security, really information security,” Martin said.
“The future’s all about providing more and more information to decision-makers so they make informed decisions,” Martin said. “Growing that environment, especially the way technology is advancing and getting more and more information, it just changes warfighters fight and the way leaders lead.” It works for business as well.
“We work on very complicated systems to give our warfighters the best advantage,” he said.