The Air Force is quite pleased with the work Lockheed Martin has been doing at the service’s Distributed Mission Operations Center at Kirtland AFB, N.M., so much so it has just awarded the company another $26 million to extend the existing contract through 2009. Lockheed provides technical integration and network management, as well as development of new software, for the DMOC, which is primarily a training simulation activity. However, Col. Leonard Moskal, commander of the 505th Distributed Warfare Group at Kirtland, says DMOC does more than provide realistic network warfare training; it enables the service “to test and evaluate tactics, weapons, or technology.”
This year’s Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting buzzed with talk of countering the rapidly evolving drone threat facing the entire U.S. military, including the Air Force. Leaders and defense industry officials discussed the need for new approaches to procurement and employment of a new class of these…