SAIC Wins $40 Million Army Contract

Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego won a three-year contract worth up to $40 million from the Army Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command in Orlando, Fla., the company announced July 18.


Under the contract, SAIC will replace two communications systems at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., with one integrated voice and data system, said John Garcia, vice president of SAIC's Range Instrumentation Systems Operation in San Diego.


All active Army units in the United States train at the center for two weeks each year. There, they fight a full-time professional force using real vehicles and laser bullets.


The fixed-price contract, awarded under the eight-year, $4 billion STRICOM Omnibus Contract, will be performed in three phases. During the first phase, which is valued at $17 million, SAIC will deliver a commercially based, two-way trunked radio communications subsystem within 16 months. The system will allow analysts and Army trainers at the National Training Center to communicate during training exercises.


In the next two phases, SAIC and its team will replace a cellular phone-based communications subsystem with a digital system based on the trunked radio system. The new digital system will relay information from the battlefield to evaluators in near-real time. It will provide data on the performance of as many as 2,500 participants, including dismounted infantry, tanks, tactical vehicles and helicopters.

The system initially will handle up to 5,500 voice and data users and will be able to expand to 10,000 users.


SAIC developed the training center's original instrumentation system in the 1980s. The contract allows SAIC to continue providing the training center with the latest available technology, Garcia said.


SAIC will provide 3,000 voice radios for use by trainers and analysts, maintenance personnel and emergency services personnel. The radios can also be used to transmit and receive digital messages using laptops and other data devices.


SAIC will use the Tetrapol digital trunked radio system produced by the European Aerospace and Defense System of Munich, Germany. The Tetrapol system is used in 27 countries for military and commercial trunked radio applications.

SAIC also will use the services of Raytheon Co. of Lexington, Mass., to develop the radio frequency communications infrastructure for Fort Irwin.