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Overwatch Receives Contract Go-ahead From EADS Astrium

Wideband Gapfiller Satellite (X/Ka).
by Staff Writers
Austin, TX (SPX) Sep 05, 2006
The Communications Systems Business Area of Overwatch Systems has been awarded a $2.3M, follow-on contract by EADS Astrium to build seven additional X/Ka shipboard antennas for the Australian Navy's ASTIS JP2008 program. This follow-on contract is in addition to the initial contract for eight antenna systems that is due for completion in July.

Supporting shipboard-based communication needs for the Australian Navy, the antenna and feed developed under the initial development program utilizes Overwatch's patented multiband feed technology to offer a truly unique solution which represents technology advancement unmatched by other solutions available in the market-place today.

Multiband antenna systems, specifically simultaneous multiband, allow one antenna to perform the duties once required of multiple antenna terminals.

In a shipboard environment, combining two frequency bands into one antenna saves deck space (which is at a premium) and increases operational flexibility to match the capabilities of the satellite being used. In the case of the Australian Navy, the Optus satellite provides both X and Ka transmit and receive capability, simultaneously. It is a logical evolution that the satellite terminal should provide the same capability.

At the heart of this antenna is Overwatch's patented feed and lens technology. Utilizing a proven coaxial cavity design for individual frequency bands produces a feed which provides separate, electrically isolated outputs for each desired band, in the desired polarization orientation.

This technology has now been proven and fielded on a number of applications, and the Communication Systems Business Area is actively working to market this approach to other customer's needs. In conjunction with the basic feed design, a patented lens technology is used to focus the resulting feed based on the antenna aperture (shape and size) to meet the gain and efficiency requirements.

Throughout the original ASTIS development program, Overwatch has developed relationships with several key vendors which will again be utilized on the follow-on order.

From a large shipboard radome design built by MFG Ratech to the electroformed waveguide sections, built by GD-C4 Systems, necessary to meet the low passive Intermodulation requirements, Overwatch will again utilize these vendors to produce a product that has utility not only to the Australian Navy, but which is also garnering renewed interest in US applications as the Wideband Gapfiller Satellite (X/Ka) launch approaches mid-07.

Over the past several years, the engineering team in Richardson has developed and perfected a solution to an operational requirement that is unmatched in industry today. Several vendors are trying, but Overwatch is the only vendor to field this technology successfully. It's been a long, tough road to make this work, and the achievement of those results by everyone involved in Richardson is greatly appreciated. Now is the time to reap the benefits!

Overwatch Systems, LLC is a leading provider of software-based multi-source intelligence analysis tools to the US intelligence community (IC) including the US Military, three letter agencies and Department of Homeland Security. Overwatch also serves certain foreign intelligence operations. Over 40,000 analysts across the IC are using Overwatch tools today. Overwatch is committed to creating a low cost collaborative system of information sharing across the IC.

Overwatch has a well established presence in the IC where it's "RemoteView" and "ELT" brands of image analysis products are recognized as the standard for geospatial intelligence and analysis. Through its development of the ASAS-Light program, Overwatch also developed high skill level in the design of SIGINT, HUMINT, OSINT (Open Source) and MASINT systems.

Overwatch has significant development experience with the Fusion process (allowing disparate Intel sources to be combined into a single Intel picture) and holds one of the largest US contracts for Fusion development.

Overwatch has recently focused on the development of more highly automated tools to enable analysts to rapidly do a wider range of analysis across a wider array of sources. The "GeoLink" product enables all-source analysts to perform web searches of related Intelligence across a wide range of both legacy and commercial databases.

Overwatch's "Feature Analyst" product allows image analysts to automatically search for certain key features and can be self taught to reduce the number of false signals.

Overwatch's corporate mission is to achieve two objectives; first, to provide an integrated set of analysis tools to create a collaborative multi-source analysis environment across all agencies and organizations. Second, Overwatch has developed the Overwatch Intelligence Center (OIC) which is the SEI-SPL concept of retaining certified code to reduce the cost, risk and timeframes needed to develop complex software systems.

Today the OIC includes over 800 software functions in the "warehouse" ready to be combined with custom code and deployed in a wide range of programs.

As an example of the value of the OIC, a 2005 development in the UK, projected to take two years, in fact took only five (5) months by using the code previously written for other programs and combining it with a small number of lines of new code needed to meet the specific application and integration requirements of the users program.

Located in Morristown, NJ with development centers in Washington DC, Boston, Montana, and Austin Texas, over 70% of the companies employees are engineers, cleared to assist in a wide-range of intelligence applications.

Through its Richardson operations, Overwatch also has a patented simultaneous, multi-band satellite receiver design which can be adapted to virtually any existing in-field, on-shipboard, or new antenna design to enable multi-band communications across a single antenna. Overwatch also serves the worldwide medical community with its "MedX" imaging development tool and its functional MRI (fMRI) imaging tools for clinical brain diagnosis and surgical planning.

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