Avineon has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program Phase II contract by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). Under the contract, which is a continuation of its Phase I work, Avineon will continue transforming NAVSEA's existing Afloat Master Planning System (AMPS) into a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to support the Navy's Strike Force Interoperability (SFI) initiative. NAVSEA, the largest of the Navy's five systems commands, engineers, builds and supports America's fleet of ships and combat systems. Avineon has been working with the Navy on various defense and IT-related projects since 1996.

The DoD's SBIR program funds early-stage research and development projects at small technology companies -- projects that serve a DoD need and have the potential for commercialization in the private sector and military markets. As part of Phase II, Avineon will SOA-enable the Electronic Change Control Board (ECCB) subsystem of AMPS and establish a cross-domain SOA architecture to enable the secure exchange of ECCB information across security boundaries. The team will also transition the ECCB SOA implementation to Navy Data Environment servers, as well as implement a cross-domain device within the Navy infrastructure that supports ECCB web services.

Said Bill Douglas, SFI Configuration and Readiness Engineering Branch Head with NAVSEA, "Avineon's innovation, dedication and flexibility supporting the AMPS migration have made them a valuable partner as the Navy modernizes its infrastructure. With their contributions, AMPS will be positioned to better meet the information transfer needs within the highly dynamic Navy environment."

Avineon will be building on its Phase I work examining the SFI environment and developing a high-level architecture based on SOA. During Phase I, Avineon determined that cross-domain enabled web service architecture would enhance interoperability and information exchange and increase the readiness of the Fleet for deployed and combat operations. The team also identified the ECCB portion of the AMPS system as the best candidate subsystem for web service enablement due to its central role in the SFI processes and its envisioned future roles within the Navy's Entitled Process and the Naval NETWAR/FORCEnet Enterprise (NNFE).

"Avineon appreciates the opportunity made possible by the SBIR program to continue our long-standing relationship with the Navy," stated Scott Starsman, Avineon's Director of Defense Systems and the Principal Investigator for this program. "The technology developed is broad in application and should find many uses in the government and private sectors."