Program officials from Northrop Grumman [NOC], in conjunction with the Air Force, are preparing to deploy a key command and control system to service installations worldwide, after the platform secured a major milestone approval late last year, according to a company statement.
The Joint Interface Control Officer Support System (JSS) will be deployed to as many as 26 Air Force and joint U.S. military installations across the globe, according to the Jan. 4 statement.
“With this approval for production and fielding, members of the JSS government program office and the Northrop Grumman team have completed the last major development step to get this critical capability into the hands of JICOs,” said Claude Hashem, Northrop Grumman vice president and deputy general manager of the company’s Network Communications Systems division, in the statement.
Once deployed, the system will allow the air service’s various manned and unmanned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems to communicate and exchange information with ground forces via “multi-tactical datalink networks,” it added.
“With JSS, optimum aerial layer data network management is within …grasp,” Hashem said.
Moveover, the new system will likely become a core component for the Defense Department-wide Joint Aerial Layer Network. That network, as envisioned by DoD, will utilize a “high-capacity communications network management system” that will interconnect air, space and ground C2 operations.
At press time, Northrop Grumman officials had not responded to further queries regarding potential basing locations for the JSS system and possible deployment timelines.
The decision to activate the C2 system comes shortly after service officials approved the JSS for Milestone C certification last November. Before that, the Air Force cleared the JSS on classified U.S. networks and allied data link networks.