A BAE Systems led team is developing a web-based surveillance and targeting system for the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) under a US$47 million contract. Global Net-Centric Surveillance and Targeting (GNCST) system, dubbed “Gun Coast”, uses real-time intelligence to rapidly identify battlefield targets and other possible threats to accelerate the decision-making process performed by human intelligence analysts. Through the use of complex algorithms, GNCST can dramatically reduce the workload and time needed to put vital pieces of information together.
“Once GNCST is operational, an end user might ask the system to locate surface-to-air missiles that appeared in a specific region within the past 45 seconds,” said Scott Boyce, BAE Systems’ GNCST program manager in San Diego. “In as little as a few seconds, GNCST would respond with target coordinates for those missiles.”
The system uses a Web-based interface on a secured computer network to gather real-time data from multiple intelligence sensors and process it into useable data for the military and intelligence communities. BAE Systems leads a team supported by Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, and Dragon Research. The initial contract is a 15-month program with four additional options. The next step will be to transition the system from a lab and demonstration environment to an operational system and into the hands of the war fighter.
