The Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) formally introduced itself today at a press conference in Washington, D.C. The new group, consisting initially of 28 companies that span the IT and telecommunications industries, came together to develop open standards that can be used by companies developing products and applications that will facilitate network-centric communications – thus allowing groups including different branches of the military, first-responders, air traffic controllers, and other government and possibly commercial interests to have access to the same data at the same time to allow for more efficient communications during military engagements and crisis events.

Among the initial companies involved in the NCOIC are BAE Systems, Boeing [BA], EADS, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Lockheed Martin [LMT], Microsoft [MSFT] and Raytheon.

Moving toward open standards for military communications certainly has its pluses and minuses. On the plus side, having an open standard should open up the competitive market on the industry side, as government contractors will have the ability to mix and match products and help ensure they get the “best of breed” when it comes to communications equipment. That type of standardized thinking has worked well in the commercial communications marketplace. On the other hand, having an open standard does invite those with ulterior motives to constantly challenge the security of the open standards.

Because the group was only formed about a month ago, any specific approaches the consortium would take in developing these standards was not disclosed at the meeting, and the group had no initial milestone targets to offer at this time.

For more details on the launch of this consortium, please see the October issue of Satellite News’ Government Procurement Report. For information on subscribing to Access Intelligence’s satellite industry publications, please visit us on the Web at https://www.satellitetoday.com.