[SatNews] The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) a contract to demonstrate information interoperability among different implementations of service-oriented architecture (SOA) information technology (IT) systems across the air and space command and control domains.

Under the contract awarded by the Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome Research Site, Rome, N.Y., Northrop Grumman will conduct technology experiments to show methods that allow distributed SOA-based IT infrastructures to operate as a larger, virtually integrated command and control (C2) system. The company will explore community of interest-based data models, information protocols and message exchange standards so that specified services can be best accessed and managed across the enterprise. Northrop Grumman will also examine evolving information technologies and common integrated C2 operational threads within and across the air and space warfighting domains.