Israel's Elbit Systems receives Digital Army Program contract

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HAIFA, Israel, July 26 (UPI) -- Israel's Elbit Systems Ltd. has received a supplementary contract to continue work on the Israeli military's Digital Army Program.

The new $40 million contract for the DAP, also known as "Zayad," was issued by the Israeli Ministry of Defense and is to last several years. It is part of a multiyear program valued about $300 million.

The Hermes and Skylark unmanned aerial systems form an integral part of the program, integrated into a comprehensive net-centric solution.

The DAP contract is intended to improve Israeli military force coordination at all levels, allowing increased access to updated situational video and still picture feeds as well as improving overall operational capabilities including survivability and accuracy and allowing for more efficient utilization of personnel and other resources.

The new Elbit DAP contract tasks the company to supply and support all hardware and software systems, including command and control stations, data processing and distribution systems, Elbit Systems Ltd. announced.

The DAP systems is designed to link every echelon down to single fighting vehicles to real-time, mission-critical information, shortening the sensor-to-shooter cycle and allowing commanders to optimally utilize all their combat means and resources.

Elbit Systems' DAP is intended to interlink all Israeli land, air and naval forces, from high-echelon headquarters to individual platforms of sensors and soldiers to achieve force multiplication by maximizing combat resource coordination.

Since the DAP program's launch in December 2004, three successive block versions of the Torch system, the driver behind the DAP network, have been deployed in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip and along Israel's northern border with Lebanon.

DAP is intended to allow the Israeli military to transition to fully digitized, maneuvering ground forces connected by cyberlinks to be equally adept at networked warfare in low- or high-intensity arenas.

The DAP program is the centerpiece of Israel's land force modernization effort, intended to link all combat echelons and disparate ground force elements into a single, secure , control, communications and computers net.

DAP is a 10-year, $500 million program funded by both the Israeli Ministry of Defense and U.S. military aid.

Israel's Elbit Systems Ltd. is an international defense electronics company with a worldwide range of programs. Elbit Systems Ltd. includes Elbit Systems and its subsidiaries and operates in the areas of aerospace, land and naval systems, command, control, communications, computers, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, unmanned aircraft systems, advanced electro-optics, electro-optic space systems, electronic warfare suites, airborne warning systems, electronic signals intelligence systems, data links and military communications systems and radios.