Agilent Technologies Inc. announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, NetworkFab, has been awarded a five-year, $45 M Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase III Contract with the US Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center's Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate at Fort Monmouth, NJ. This contract is for Wideband Sensor Systems with hyperfast Direction Finding (DF) and integrated Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) search, identification and collection of tactical targets.

The NetworkFab systems' modular hardware design and software-defined architecture offer:
• scalability to deploy new capabilities to the field without having to redesign the entire system;
• easy adaptability to new threats, missions and signals of interest;
• a special feature -- Universal Signal Detection - that allows previously undefined signals to be easily and quickly characterized by the user in the field without system modification; and
• a unique capability -- the Wideband Sensor System -- that can operate in a Blue-Force jamming environment, which allows SIGINT DF missions to be executed with active Electronic Warfare (EW) force-protection.

"Agilent is very proud to be supporting the US Army and the Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate at Fort Monmouth," said Ron Nersesian, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Wireless Business Unit. "We are confident that this contract will make new technology available to augment the Army's existing systems and provide the next generation in tactical SIGINT and high-speed wideband DF capability."

NetworkFab earned this contract after successfully executing the SBIR Phase I/II efforts. These included the development and demonstration of technologies for an integrated SIGINT system with real-time DF capability. SBIR Phase III contracts are awarded to companies that have successfully commercialized the technologies developed and demonstrated in the SBIR program.

This SBIR Phase III contract is an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity procurement vehicle available to the US Army and other US government agencies to meet their mission requirements. Contract deliverables will include integrated sensor systems, subsystems, remote sensors and engineering services for custom solutions. Work under this contract will be performed at Agilent's SND facilities in Santa Rosa and Santa Clara, CA; Everett, WA; and Columbia, MD.