The U.S. Air Force has awarded Analytical Graphics Inc. (AGI) a contract modification potentially worth $39 million to provide orbit-modeling and analysis software in support of the modernization of the U.S. Defense Department’s Joint Space Operations Center (Jspoc), the company announced Jan. 8.
The Jspoc, headquartered at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., is the nerve center of U.S. military space operations, responsible for space surveillance, collision avoidance and launch support. The Jspoc Mission System (JMS) is an ongoing, three-phased effort to replace or upgrade the hardware and software currently used for these purposes, with an eye toward providing more precise and timely orbital information, among other goals.
The modernization effort, initiated in 2009 to address an increasingly complicated and congested space environment, is expected to cost more than $500 million through 2017. The new system, which replaces the legacy Space Defense Operations Center, must integrate data from multiple sources to give U.S. military commanders a comprehensive picture of what is going on in space at any given time.
The contract for software and maintenance runs through 2018. It includes a software update from a previous contract awarded in November 2012, the release said. These products will be used in the JMS Increment 2.
The base value of the latest contract modification is $4.1 million for the six-month period that began in August 2013, said Anthony Roake, a spokesman for Air Force Space Command.
Stefanie Claypoole, a spokeswoman for AGI, said the contract includes various options that would cover services through 2018.
A.i. solutions of Lanham, Md., also received a contract worth about $1.1 million for the six-month period ending in December 2013.
Roake said in an email Dec. 16 that the service expects to make additional awards to both companies in the next two years.
