The Collaboration Technologies Mission Planning System software creates a virtual mission planning room where military personnel situated anywhere on the globe can meet to plan joint missions in real time, using their own computer programs that previously could not communicate with one another.

Such a system has never been used before for military flight planning. Previously, joint missions with the Army and Air Force meant each branch used its own software. Then, the mission planners would use radio, phone, or email to update each other.

With CTI's mission planning software, the different computer programs are linked in a virtual planning room so that information can be shared instantaneously. CTI's software can also interact with commercial programs like Microsoft’s Flight Simulator.

The company recently scored its first major contract with the Royal Australian Air Force, and is working closely with U.S. Senator Jack Reed’s office to break into the lucrative world of Department of Defense contracts, [part owner and recently retired Air Force lieutenant colonel David Buckley] said.

A major selling point of the technology is its very low impact on IT infrastructure – it typically uses about half the bandwidth associated with a 56k dial-up modem. Because much of the U.S. military’s private data pipeline is taken up by layer after layer of security, bandwidth is “worth its weight in gold”...

CTI is also exploring commercial applications for its software product, particularly in civilian emergency response planning and to help manufacturers with computer-aided design, he said.