SAIC Lands $625 Million Navy ContractSAIC Lands $625 Million Navy Contract

The U.S. Navy and Air Force are looking to use technology to improve command and control operations to better integrate them across different sectors of their respective agencies.

The U.S. Navy's Program Executive Office of Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence has awarded a contract to Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) to develop new command and control software for the Department of Defense (DoD), SAIC said in a press statement this week.

SAIC joins several other companies involved in the five-year project, and could earn as much as $625 million for its work, it said. The award calls for SAIC to develop new software as well as modify existing Navy command and control systems.

The deal also calls for SAIC to provide support in a number of areas, including: software engineering, design, development, integration, modification, testing and evaluation. It will also provide integrated logistics support and configuration and program management services, according to the press statement.

The Air Force, meanwhile, is soliciting proposals for awards for what it's calling an "Integrated C2" program, according to the request for bids on the FedBizOpps.gov Web site.

The program is "to lead the discovery, development and integration of revolutionary warfighting information technologies that enable continuous and distributed, planning, execution, and assessment of resources across the cyber, air and space domains to achieve commander's intent," according to the request.

The Air Force is looking for white papers to address three key areas for integrating and synchronizing C2 for future military campaigns.

The first is strategy development to unify command across the air, space and cyber domains of the agency. The second is synchronized/integrated planning to provide a "logically feasible" plan of action for a military campaign that can be adapted as conditions change; and the third is continuous assessment of a campaign to determine challenges that may arise and change the course of action if warranted.

Total funding for Integrated C2 is about $43.2 million, with $3.7 million to be awarded in fiscal-year 2011; $7.6 million in fiscal-year 2012; $12.1 million in fiscal-year 2014; and $8.4 million in fiscal-year 2015.

Individual awards will not be longer than 18 months and the value of each will range between $100,000 to $1 million per year, according to the Air Force.