Friday, September 19, 2008

BAE Systems wins DARPA deal to make video search tool

The National Security Solutions unit of defense contractor BAE Systems was awarded a $7.16 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop a tool to rapidly search through video archives based on content.

BAE Systems National Security Solutions said it will do the bulk of the work in its Burlington headquarters, as well as in facilities in Cambridge and Los Angeles. The contract should be completed by March of 2010, according to officials. 

Last month, BAE Systems’ Advanced Information Technologies unit —also based at the Burlington campus — won a $21.5 million deal from the U.S. Air Force to develop a software platform for long-term maritime and ground target tracking. The project includes radar sensor networking and communications technologies.

In June, BAE announced its Nashua, N.H., facility would develop the advanced magnetic random-access memory (MRAM) product designs of Toronto-based Micromem Applied Sensor Technologies Inc. Also in June, the company landed almost $32 million for electronic countermeasure systems from the U.S. Navy.

BAE Systems is the U.S. subsidiary of United Kingdom-based BAE Systems plc (LON: BA) and is headquartered in Rockville, Md. BAE Systems plc employs 97,500 people worldwide.