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Technology developer Draper has confirmed that it is expanding its current offering to the US Department of Defence from R&D to platform maintenance and operation.
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Technology developer Draper has confirmed that it has entered into a new contract with the US Department of Defence to operate and maintain the military's Tactical Assault Kit communications system.
Draper explained that the agreement is between the company and the US DoD’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency and valued at $415,000, and encompasses maintenance support, technical services and training for the system.
The kit, a mobile computing system, provides greater command and control and situational awareness capabilities to warfighters and security professionals by generating a map-based common operating picture on a shared network.
“The map-based interface enables users to share information and maintain constant situational awareness, by allowing the addition of context to raw video feeds, such as labelling buildings as schools or hospitals to protect them against strikes, or designation of pickup points for evacuation. Fire and rescue crews have been trained to use the app for location tracking of fire equipment, establishing fire perimeters from aircraft and building fire model forecasts,” a release from the company read.
The system was developed to integrate into a range of devices via a plug including tablets, and can develop applications tailored to meet mission requirements. Draper explained that the software is available as ATAK for Android, WinTAK for Windows and WebTAK for the web.
Up to now, the system has been used by 10,000 warfighters and even supports the Nuclear Enterprise Contingency Operations Department’s chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) detector systems.
Draper has worked with the kit since its inception.
“Draper is building stronger ties with our government customer and demonstrating the value we bring as an engineering innovation company which can integrate technology development with global maintenance and deployment,” Brian Alligood, Draper’s program manager for TAK, said.
“Our goal with this contract is to ensure TAK continues to deliver situational awareness at the tactical edge.”
The system is therefore able to cater for an array of users including military, security officers and first responders.
[Related: APC Technology launches new defence ready GVA smart display technology]
