$50B Alliant award goes to 59 firms

Those who doubted that the Alliant contract would ever be awarded have been shown the folly of despair: Its recent award by the General Services Administration appears to be sticking this time — good news for the 59 winners. But for CACI International Inc., Computer Sciences Corp., Harris Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp., a spot on Alliant was only the start of a fine spring.

Alliant is GSA’s $50 billion, 10-year follow-on to the Applications ’N’ Support for Widely Diverse End-User Requirements and Millennia contracts, each valued at $25 billion. Alliant covers components of integrated information technology solutions, including current technologies and those that might emerge in the future.

After years spent crafting Alliant, GSA awarded the contract in July 2007 to 29 companies. That award was overturned after a federal judge upheld a protest charging that GSA did not properly evaluate the bids.

GSA officials say they’re confident the new award will not be protested.

A pair of $400 million wins gave Lockheed Martin the top winner title. The company won GSA’s $400 million, five-year contract to support the Federal Acquisition Service. The FAS Applications, Maintenance and Enhancements blanket purchase agreement will help the agency more efficiently manage and administer IT system operations and program management support, GSA officials said.

In addition, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency gave Lockheed Martin the green light on a $400 million project to design, build and flight-test a high-altitude, autonomous surveillance aircraft.

CSC crossed the pond for a $570 million prize: a 10-year contract from the United Kingdom to revamp systems to let Brits apply online for passports and to improve background checks. It will also create a new system for reporting lost or stolen passports and ID cards.

CACI on a roll

CACI swept up awards totaling $184 million — five from the Defense Department and one from the Veterans Affairs Department to improve its budgetary and financial processes.

The Army chose CACI to support intelligence efforts by the Army Intelligence and Security Command, DOD’s Defense Security Service agency and the Distributed Common Ground System-Army.

The company also won a pair of contracts for DOD acquisition efforts. CACI will continue supporting the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, and under a new $50 million, five-year contract, it will provide acquisition and program management support to DARPA.

Harris scored a coup for its Falcon III AN/PRC-117G radio with a $150 million order from the Army. The radio has been approved for use with the Joint Tactical Radio System and offers secure access to bandwidth-hungry applications, such as biometrics, video streaming and reconnaissance data processing.

“This latest agreement by the Army to buy the Harris radios is significant,” said Chris Donaghey, a director at investment banking firm SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. “It’s the first major buy of the Falcon III, and it’s a huge endorsement of the capabilities of the product.”

Although General Dynamics Corp. won the DOD contract to develop the new radio, Harris went ahead and created its own. The Harris product is currently the only JTRS-approved radio available. With more than 300,000 noncompliant radios deployed, the Harris buy could signal the beginning of a larger upgrade for DOD, Donaghey said.