Boeing

For the first time, Boeing [NYSE:BA] will publicly showcase its net-centric operations (NCO) capabilities today during a networked, three-site press conference, enabling reporters in Anaheim, Calif., St. Louis, and the newest facility near Washington DC, to witness Boeing's enterprise-wide network in action.

This network is the enterprise-wide Boeing modeling, simulation, and analysis network, and with the opening of the second Boeing Integration Center (BIC) in Crystal City, Va., Boeing has added its newest network node.

"Today marks the first glimpse of our Net Centric Operations capability to people outside our customer community," said IDS President and CEO Jim Albaugh. "We'll network multiple Boeing sites and platforms for this press event, just as we create networks daily for customers to model, simulate, test, and measure the results of different operational scenarios," Albaugh said. "This ability to take independent platforms and engineering environments and enable them to participate in a collaborative network environment is the heart of net-centric operations. Through the power of the network, relevant information from virtually every source can be rapidly accessed and used to enable richly informed decisions that result in success."

During the 90-minute network tour, Boeing facilities in Crystal City, Anaheim, St. Louis, Seattle, Long Beach, Calif., Mesa, Ariz., and Philadelphia will create a network using the F/A-18 Fighter Aircraft, F-15 Eagle Tactical Fighter, EA-18 Airborne Electronic Attack Variant, the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), the Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA), Joint Unmanned Contact Air System (J-UCAS), Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), Apache Helicopter, V-22 Osprey Aircraft, Chinook CH-47 Helicopter, and Connexion by Boeing platforms.

Highlighted is Boeing's newest node, a second BIC facility that complements the first BIC in Anaheim that, during its first three years of operation, hosted more than 17,000 visitors. Both facilities enable customers to plug their requirements, capabilities and technologies into a network and perform real-time simulated missions while bringing real-life experiences to the discussion in order to discover improved information sharing, enhanced situational awareness, enabled speed of command, and improved mission effectiveness.

"When you come to a Boeing visualization facility, you come not to a building but to a window to the future that shows how operating in a net-centric environment will assist the soldier, the homeland security officer, or the emergency responder," said Carl O'Berry, vice president of Boeing Strategic Architecture, the unit that created and operates the BICs. "We've listened to our customers and have adapted technology allowing us to rapidly configure a network of customer-specific assets to meet their mission objectives," O'Berry said. "Each additional node, like our new BIC in Crystal City, increases this capability exponentially."

Each BIC can draw information from government and commercial simulation centers, both inside and outside of Boeing. The data is used in modeling scenarios proving the effectiveness of advanced technology in specific environments. Boeing continuously enhances BIC capabilities by adding new features, interfaces, and modeling tools. Today more than a million lines of highly responsive operational software code drives Boeing training and simulation exercises.