September 2002 Meeting

 

Geospatial Data Production

Jon Vance, Program Manager
Geospatial Data Production Center
BAE Systems - Rancho Bernardo
http://ms.na.baesystems.com

BAE Systems Mission Solutions continues to be the industry leader in developing high-quality image exploitation and archiving systems for stereo photogrammetry, photointerpretation, and mapping, charting and geodesy (MC&G) applications. BAE Systems specialize in the design and integration of large, distributed, network-based computing, archive and dissemination systems. These systems incorporate decades of expertise in the areas of terrain and feature database generation, artificial intelligence, digital photo interpretation, and large volume image storage and retrieval.

 

Meeting Review

By Brian Catanzaro

Jon Vance leads the BAE Systems effort in analysis of remote sensing data for government applications. He has spent the last five years at BAE Systems growing a group from five (5) people in San Diego to over 150 people nationwide. The group uses data from both satellite and aerial observations and integrates visual data with radar tomography to produce three dimensional representations of the Earth. Once image data is processed, it is vectorized and categorized, greatly reducing the size of the data files. The data can be used for civil (e.g. aviation) and military purposes.

The imaging processing technology used at BAE Systems is primarily the SOCET SET software produced by another BAE Systems group co-located in Rancho Bernardo. BAE Systems has demonstrated high resolution tomography from stereo pairs, achieving a resolution in height equal to the lateral resolution of the image. In addition, BAE Systems is one of two contractors reducing the SRTM data collected by NASA on a recent shuttle mission. The SRTM data provides topographic data of the overwhelming majority of the populated land mass of the Earth. At the conclusion of the meeting, Jon showed the group stereo imaging of the Santa Barbara airport demonstrating the powerful capability of both their image processing software and hardware.

 

Mission Solutions web site ( http://ms.na.baesystems.com/ )

 

Focus Still on Technology Amid Turnovers

By Bruce V. Bigelow
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
September 5, 2003

 

Digital technologies developed for the military at BAE Systems Mission Solutions
in San Diego create computerized 3-D images from overhead spy photos.

Rumors of a possible corporate buyout usually flow through a work force like high-voltage jolts of electricity, sending ripples of apprehension, uncertainty and dread through the ranks. But months of defense industry speculation that London-based BAE Systems has been dressed up for sale have apparently failed to stir much anxiety among the 1,500 employees of BAE Systems Mission Solutions in San Diego.

Trade reports often mention Boeing as the most likely candidate to buy BAE Systems. Others are Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Raytheon. But if such reports elicit little more than a shoulder shrug at BAE's San Diego subsidiary, it's probably because the business formed by General Dynamics in 1961 has been sold and resold five times since 1992. The ownership changes have come so frequently that managers created a rebate program so employees could trade in their company polo shirts for replacements embroidered with a new logo.

When someone asks about the buyout rumor, "We just tell people there's always a chance we could get acquired," said Ed Langmaid, the San Diego spokesman for BAE Systems Mission Solutions. "I think we're comfortable. If something happens, fine, and if not, we can go either way." Such peace of mind may stem from the collective belief that the business in suburban Rancho Bernardo has maintained its core expertise despite the changes that come with a revolving door of corporate ownership.

The division specializes in advanced technologies used by U.S. intelligence agencies for producing and analyzing aerial photos and by the military for planning and managing battlefield missions. Mission Solutions also holds long-term manufacturing contracts for equipment used to test aircraft electronics in military aircraft, such as the F-16 fighter and C-17 cargo plane. The business is strong enough that Mission Solutions plans to hire about 100 people for its San Diego work force, primarily in software and systems engineering. With a total of 2,200 employees, including 1,500 at its 12-acre corporate campus off West Bernardo Drive, Mission Solutions ranks as San Diego's sixth-largest defense contractor.

Parent company BAE Systems, known previously as British Aerospace, has nearly 100,000 employees worldwide and ranks as the largest foreign-owned defense contractor in the United States. BAE Systems reorganized the San Diego business under its Information Systems Sector after its $12.7 billion buyout of Marconi Electronics in 1999. The company built a headquarters in Rancho Bernardo in 2000.

In July, BAE named William Ballhaus to a new position as president of the Mission Solutions business. Ballhaus, 36, joined BAE after a nine-year career with Boeing Satellite Systems, which he characterized as "a complementary domain" focused on space and communications technologies. The new boss also holds a master's of business administration from the University of California Los Angeles, a Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University and a bachelor's in engineering from University of California Davis. Because of its expertise, Ballhaus said Mission Solutions is ideally positioned for what the Pentagon calls "C4ISR" – command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

"Our government and our military is really focused right now on maintaining information dominance," Ballhaus said. A trend in recent years is what Ballhaus called "information fusion," which enables senior intelligence officials to synthesize intelligence data arriving from a variety of sensors, sources and agencies. Conversely, military commanders want the technical capability to distribute selected data to any shooter.

"Our customers are looking to buy systems and 'systems of systems' that tie everything together," Ballhaus said. At Mission Solutions, he added, "We're seeing a real convergence between our national imaging capabilities and our tactical capabilities."

Mission Solutions generates about $500 million in annual sales, Ballhaus said. That's a small but significant portion of BAE's financial results. The British goliath posted global profits of $1.7 billion and revenue of $20.1 billion in 2002. Despite its European orientation, BAE chief executive Mike Turner has emphasized that the company's future lies in strengthening its ties with the defense market and technology in the United States. Ballhaus said that about 95 percent of Mission Solutions' revenue comes from defense and intelligence work that remains classified.

One glimpse of the company's capabilities, however, can be gleaned from Talisin, a business that Mission Solutions formed three years ago to commercialize certain defense technologies. Talisin's principal technology, called SOCET (for soft copy exploitation toolset), is a system that enables users to create three-dimensional computerized images and topographical maps from aerial photos. The technology was developed to create 3-D maps of military targets, such as Baghdad, that pilots could use as a visualization tool in planning bombing missions. Talisin has been marketing the technology to the U.S. Geological Survey and other civilian mapping agencies. "You can get a very accurate digital map of a city in 3-D," said J. Robert Hayes, Talisin marketing director.

Although Talisin represents less than 5 percent of the company's business, Hayes hopes to cultivate a market for such visualization technology among police and other emergency agencies. Hayes anticipates funding will be provided by the federal Department of Homeland Security, although little funding has materialized so far. "At this point, it's hard for us to quantify what that upside might be," said Ballhaus, who views homeland security as more of a potential strategic market for the company.

In the meantime, Ballhaus said, "The company is in a really neat position because we have played in both intelligence and defense – providing almost real-time intelligence for the integrated battle space."