Wipro Technologies plans to set up a Center of Excellence (COE) for Network Centric Operations (NCO). NCO is the next generation battlefield management environment where all components of a force- equipment , command & control and logistics are integrated into a seamless operation.

Briefing Aeroindianews.com, the official E-Magazine of Aero India 2007, Wipro executives said that the proposed COE of Wipro would develop appropriate frameworks in integrating networking and communication technologies with other components of NCO which could be offered to defense forces and their partners.

Aeroindianews.com has separately learnt that Thales, IAI (Israel) ST-Engineering and Lockheed Martin are among the bidders for the IAF's, Optical Data Link (ODL) project. This project is a part of the overall NCO. The RFP for this project believed to be in excess of Rs.1000 crores spanning all phases has been issued and pre-bid negotiations are on. The project is in three phases where 10 aircraft will be data-linked in the first phase, 350 in the second and the rest of the fleet in the third phase.

Wipro Technologies has expertise in a gamut of communication and electronics design areas which are leveraged to address areas such as avionics systems, cabin electronics, power supply, control systems, inflight entertainment, cockpit communications, GSM communications and IP based networking for aerospace sector. Wipro executives said they met international quality systems for aerospace industries requirements and have already implemented projects for aircraft OEM's and tier 1 suppliers.