Northrop Grumman wins $13.5 million contract mod for surveillance kits

Northrop Grumman has won a $13.5 million contract modification with the U.S. Navy that adds three years and two additional items to a previous contract.

Due to the modification, the previous contract’s value bumped up to $43 million, and Northrop Grumman will additionally provide (V)4 Electronic Surveillance Enhancement kits and technically refreshed Electronic Surveillance Enhancement kits used in the AN/SLQ-32 anti-ship missile system, the Defense Department said in a release.

Work will be performed in Goleta, Calif., and is expected to be completed by April 2016.

Funding in the amount of $2.1 million is obligated at the time of the award, and will expire at the end of fiscal 2013.

Sequestration remains a mystery

Listen to the earnings calls from Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics, and they will closely follow the themes struck by Lockheed Martin the day before: When it comes to sequestration, the impact so far is minimal.

5 reasons why the cloud is on top

Cloud computing is booming, and the Huffington Post pointed to five reasons why in a recent Huffington Post article.

First off, cloud computing saves money and the environment because it does not require paper; it’s green and cheap, in other words. Second, it can save time when you look at all of the filing and printer maintenance that you won’t have to do. Third, it makes working a lot easier, with different departments being able to access the same piece of work in real time, thereby reducing the need for lengthy meetings.

Small-biz support needed for Tricare

The Defense Department’s health care system, Tricare, is looking for small businesses to help in program and task coordination related to the electronic health standards.

Other services include preparing and developing requirements and tracking compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Cloud puts its stranglehold on traditional hardware, software vendors

InfoWorld reported that the rise in cloud computing is choking out hardware and software vendors, according to a Baird Equity Research Technology report. Companies are becoming more reliant on cloud-based services, and are growing away from traditional IT hardware and software.

The impact on such hardware and software is not all that great currently, but as time goes on – perhaps by 2016, InfoWorld reported – the impact will be much greater. The Baird report estimated that, for every dollar spent on Amazon’s cloud, there are three or four dollars not being spent on traditional IT, and this ratio is expected to grow, Infoworld reported.

It will be interesting to see, InfoWorld said, how the technology industry adjusts to these changes, and how these traditional IT hardware and software providers will prepare themselves for the change.

CenturyLink wins DISA's $750M DREN III contract

CenturyLink has won a 10-year, $750 million task order contract with the Defense Information Systems Agency to solve complicated and time-consuming problems with parallel computing and high-speed networking.

This contract, known as the Defense Research and Engineering Network III contract, was awarded by DISA’s Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization.

Northrop expands Global Hawk work with Air Force win

Northrop Grumman’s Aerospace Systems sector has won a $35.7 million contract modification with the Air Force for Global Hawk engineering and manufacturing development.

This modification is to a contract that is valued at $2.3 billion.

Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk is an unmanned aerial vehicle that provides a broad overview and systematic surveillance using a high-resolution radar and electro-optical and infrared sensors.

Cloud computing, health IT go hand-in-hand

According to the cloud computing consulting firm CoreMatrix, the health care industry is in an era of transformation, and cloud computing has proved useful as the industry has been adopting cloud solutions to help meet many new information technology challenges that it faces, Marketwired reported.

Lockheed Martin nabs $217M contract to deliver joint information environment

Lockheed Martin has won a $217 million contract to deliver information technology support services to the Defense Department Chief Information Office in order to better allow warfighters to share secure information.

The company will provide IT equipment, software development tools and other services necessary to support the office in matters related to IT, information assurance and information management, the company said in a release.

Lockheed expects delays to drive sequestration cuts

The quarterly reports for many defense and IT contractors will be coming out over the next couple of weeks, and we’re sure to get some more insights into the market and to the impact of sequestration.

One of the interesting things about quarterly reports is that they simultaneously give you a look back and a look forward.