Lockheed Martin today announced its team of experienced defense transport and e-business providers to compete for a $337 million, 16-year program to develop and maintain Global Transportation Network 21. GTN 21 is the next generation, web-based command and control system that will help evolve the defense transportation mission to meet the changing needs of the U.S. military.

Joining the Lockheed Martin GTN 21 Team are industry leaders in data warehousing and defense transportation logistics -- Oracle, Price Waterhouse Coopers, EDS, Innolog, Stanley Associates, and Booz-Allen Hamilton. Companies providing specialty skills and services for defense transport are RUI, VuTech and ICPro.

"The U.S. military has defined a requirement for a next-generation system that will provide significant new capabilities in areas such as decision support and crisis response," said Terry Drabant, president, Lockheed Martin Mission Systems. "Our team has considerable expertise and leadership in defense logistics, data management and e-business solutions -- the core technologies to enable the customer's vision. We developed the current GTN system, and take great pride in the outstanding 24/7 performance it has given the DoD. We have the knowledge and team skills to create an exciting and forward-looking roadmap for GTN 21," said Drabant.

The current Global Transportation Network, developed by Lockheed Martin, is recognized as a leading command and control and supply chain management system for the Department of Defense (DoD), and is one of the first major systems to apply web-based technologies to support deployed forces worldwide. The government has estimated that the current GTN system has produced hard savings, cost avoidance, and benefits to the DoD in excess of $2.3 billion.

The new GTN 21 system will incorporate commercial products and a new systems architecture to provide expanded command and control decision support capabilities. The GTN data warehouse will hold years of transportation data history that analysts and planners will use in forecasting and analyzing defense transportation needs. The system will automate many planning functions, provide a host of management services and give improved support for crisis action management.

GTN 21 will expand on the current system's InTransit Visibility functions, which provide data that analysts and users alike use to instantly track the status, location and content of shipments worldwide.

"Our deep knowledge of defense transportation issues and our first-hand awareness of GTN users' needs is an enormous asset to our team," said Drabant. "That, coupled with our teammates' best commercial data warehouse practices, will assure that we will apply these unique insights and expertise to propose a GTN 21 system that fully satisfies all current and future capability requirements." One focus for the team will be to expand the current system's highly secure web-based capabilities, giving user groups access to data in simplified formats while also allowing them to tailor and personalize the information, said Drabant.

The Global Transportation Network is operated by the U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. The current system, which has more than 6,000 registered users and averages 2,500 queries daily, employs secure, encrypted servers to keep data safe. Interfaces with commercial transportation carriers, such as truck companies that haul defense cargo, and DoD feeder systems send more than two million transactions through the system network daily. System availability within historical 12-month periods has been as high as 99.8 percent, indicating almost zero system downtime.

Earlier this year, the GTN program was honored with the 2001 Federal CIO Council Center of Excellence for Information Technology (CEIT) award. The CEIT award recognized GTN's successful web-enabled technology for significantly cutting costs and improving performance. As the developer of GTN, Lockheed Martin has also received recognition -- being named a recipient of the National Transportation Award from the National Defense Transportation Association (NDTA). The award recognizes outstanding achievements and contributions to defense transportation.

The GTN 21 competition is managed through the U.S. Air Force's Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts.

As the Corporation's lead enterprise for Information Superiority, Lockheed Martin Mission Systems serves customers including U.S. and international defense and civil government agencies. Mission Systems employs approximately 2,600 at primary facilities in Gaithersburg, Colorado Springs, Colo., Santa Maria, Calif., Manassas, Va., and O'Fallon, Ill., and is a business unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global enterprise principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced-technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's core businesses are systems integration, space, aeronautics, and technology services.

For additional information on Lockheed Martin Mission Systems visit: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/missionsystems

For additional information on Lockheed Martin Corporation visit: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/

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SOURCE: Lockheed Martin Mission Systems