As a premier weather systems and services provider, Northrop Grumman has been a key part of the evolution of the Air Force Weather Weapons System (AFWWS) in the field, at the Air Force Weather (AFW) Centers and in support of the US Army. This unique understanding of the AFW mission and operations, combined with Northrop Grumman’s ongoing research and development efforts, have led to a prototype solution to the AFW Product Tailoring/Warfighter Applications (PTWA) requirements. Concepts for this Combat Weather Information System (CWIS) grew out of three critical operational needs:

· Integration of weather with the Command and Control (C2) enterprise, Strategic Centers and Joint Commands. · Lighter and leaner forward-deployed weather system footprint · Greater forecasting collaboration between the Operational Weather Squadrons (OWSs) and Combat Weather Teams (CWTs) both garrison and deployed.

Today's systems were designed to separately support the strategic, operational and tactical levels of military operations, with minimal interoperability and primarily manual integration with the C2 Enterprise. Air Force Weather Reengineering in the mid to late '90s established new organizational structure and missions. When combined with the emphasis on speed and dominant force by the nation's military forces, this demands timely, accurate and relevant weather support that is fully integrated with the C2 Enterprise. Weather information must be available to support planning, deployment and mission execution. The system producing this data must provide scalable hardware and software to meet operational and tactical needs, with the potential to be extended to the strategic level. Further, the system must facilitate collaborative information production among military weather personnel at all operational levels.

The purpose of this paper is to describe Northrop Grumman’s system concept. The paper also suggests how the system can be applied to meet AFW mission objectives.