Ottawa, Ontario, September 20, 2007: Black Coral Inc. (www.blackcoral.net) today announced that it has been awarded a $1.2 million R&D contract with the US Department of Defense. This award is being funded through the Office of the Secretary of Defense's Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) programme (http://www.acq.osd.mil/fct).
Black Coral Inc. will test its flagship software product, Black Coral LIVE™, with the US Army's ground-based Command & Control (C2) systems to determine the suitability of Black Coral LIVE's use as a visualization and collaboration tool to support the Army's on-the-move (OTM) operations. Black Coral was awarded this contract based on its ability to integrate information flow on lower bandwidth networks, to enable users to operate while disconnected from the network and to integrate with mapping technologies widely adopted by DoD. The contract is scheduled to run over the next 2 years, culminating in a series of field trials planned for late 2008 and 2009.
"We are excited to be working with the team at US Army CERDEC (www.cerdec.army.mil) to determine how our technology fits with the OTM and collaboration initiatives within the Battle Command Program Office", stated Douglas Duncan, President and CEO of Black Coral. "Being considered to become a technology partner to augment the US Army's C2 capability validates Black Coral's efforts over the past 4 years in the military and homeland security technology. In order to meet the requirements of the project, Black Coral will partner with Future Skies Inc. (www.future-skies.com) They will provide expertise and related technology in communications between the current force and Black Coral LIVE, and general experience in the field trialing process. "Future Skies is honored to support US Army CERDEC, Project Manager Battle Command and Black Coral Inc in these initiatives." stated Greg Barrett, Senior Vice President of Future Skies. "This is a unique opportunity to leverage our experience together with Black Coral's innovative technologies to fulfill our warfighters' critical needs."
About Black Coral Inc. Black Coral Inc., an Ottawa, ON based company, is the leader in geospatial (map-based) software designed to provide the military and public safety organizations with shared situational awareness. Black Coral creates solutions that enable participants, within and across organizations to collaborate to plan and manage response efforts that minimize the impact on people, property and infrastructure. Black Coral Inc. currently provides advanced geo-spatial solutions for customers such as Public Safety Canada and the Department of National Defence. For more information about Black Coral, please see www.blackcoral.net or contact Don Williams at 613 216 8833 or don.williams@blackcoral.net.
About Future Skies Inc. an Eatontown, NJ based company, is a dynamic, woman owned, small business specializing in professional custom software development. They are an experienced software technology and service provider to U.S. Department of Defense Organizations and Commercial customers. Since Future Skies' inception they have been supplying custom application development, systems analysis, and field support to organizations such as Future Combat Systems, the U.S. Army Software Engineering Center, the U.S. Army PM Battle Command, and US Army CERDEC. Future Skies has subject matter expertise at all levels of military communications and applications from lower tactical to global strategic environments. For more information about Future Skies, please see www.future-skies.com or email corporatedevelopment@future-skies.com.