GD Awarded $54 M by US Marine Corps for Additional COCs

• Combat Operations Centers enable unprecedented situational awareness and information sharing from division headquarters to the regimental levels, throughout the battlespace

(Scottsdale, Ariz., December 3, 2009) -- General Dynamics C4 Systems will produce 24 additional Combat Operations Centers (COCs) for the U.S. Marine Corps under a new $54 million contract modification. The COCs will enable command and control operations for Marines deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq, from division or air-wing headquarters to the regimental level. The COCs also support pre-deployment training at locations in the United States. This award modifies a contract initially granted to General Dynamics in 2002; the total value to date of that contract is now $741 million.

Each of the new COCs includes critical technology upgrades for greater command, control and communications interoperability that deliver improved networked communication among Marine Corps and Joint command-and-control systems.

COCs are the focal point of decision-making for Marine commanders and their staffs. The 24 new COCs include four capability set IIs, used at the division and aviation-wing levels of command; 10 capability set IIIs, used at the regimental level; and 10 capability set IVs, used by battalion or squadron commanders at the edge of the battlespace. The Marines currently own 295 Combat Operations Centers supporting pre-deployment training and operations at the battalion, squadron, regiment, group and Marine Expeditionary Brigade levels in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries.

Each COC comprises a network of workstations and servers supporting standard Tactical Data Systems and other mission-critical software, voice, data and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications. Tents, trailers, radios, power generation and other tactical hardware integrate with each COC for a single-system command-and-control capability.

Source : General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE: GD)