Assessing Project LISTENER

The

has awarded the KAIROS Consortium, which includes

,

and

, a £1m, 10-month contract for the assessment phase of Project LISTENER.

Project LISTENER integrates sensor products to achieve interoperability between UK Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) systems and networks plus those of US and coalition forces. The assessment phase of the project covers risk reduction and solution definition work.

New York-based L-3, the prime contractor, will provide programme management, airborne platform integration, systems engineering for requirements development and test and evaluation. It has committed to perform at least 60 per cent of the LISTENER work in the UK, and has set up a project office in Tewkesbury.

Qinetiq will lead the land and sea platform integration, human factors, training, operational analysis, and will be involved in the architecture and technology development.

Meanwhile, London-based LogicaCMG will focus on integrated logistics support, security and communications.

‘Project LISTENER is blazing the trail for UK network-enabled capability. It takes advantage of our success in fielding the Network Centric Collaborative Targeting capability, modified for UK collection, processing, dissemination and security context,’ said Bob Drewes, president of L-3’s Integrated Systems Group.

The project is expected to achieve Main Gate approval (the stage after assessment at which risks have been sufficiently reduced and costs can be set with confidence) in 2009, which will be followed by demonstration and manufacturing through 2015. The LISTENER capability is expected to remain in service until 2035.