MDA extends contract with NGA

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. of British Columbia, Canada announced on July 24 that it has signed a contract amendment with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) for its Geospatial Terminal Operations (GTO) requirement. MDA will provide an additional year of software systems and services to automate the production of NGA’s aeronautical charting products associated with flight operations at airports and the airspace immediately around them. This amendment is a follow-on to the contract announced in July 2014 and includes an option of four years, with a potential total value of US$4 million over the five years.

As one of the largest aeronautical information aggregators and publishers in the world, NGA has an inventory of many thousands of airport maps and instrument flight procedure charts that depict the geospatial and navigational information pilots need to land and depart safely at airports around the world. The drafting and maintenance of these charts has traditionally been done by hand, using computer-aided drafting software. The objective of GTO is to streamline this labour-intensive process by acquiring software that automatically renders the charts directly from navigational and geospatial source data.

MDA continues to leverage expertise gained from developing aeronautical information solutions for the U.S. Air Force and the FAA and will incrementally integrate its AutoChart technology with NGA’s source databases. The contract includes a mechanism for NGA to request customizations to AutoChart to meet NGA-unique requirements. The work will be carried out at NGA’s campus in St. Louis, Missouri and at MDA’s facilities.

Source: MDA