Anteon Gets Smart-Card Support Contract

Anteon Corp. has been awarded a task order by the Air Force to manufacture and operate portable common access card issuance trailers, the company announced Oct. 1.

The first task order is for $464,000 and includes building a trailer, equipping it with specialized workstations and other hardware, and providing services and manpower for a year. Follow-on options for additional trailers and services may reach $5 million.

George Fister, Anteon's director of smart-card operations, said the trailer is built by a company that builds them for race cars. "It takes three or four weeks to build one," he said. Anteon will then install the hardware.

In November 1999, the secretary of Defense directed that all Defense Department employees be issued a common access card by the end of 2002. Anteon's systems integration group came up with the idea of the customized trailer to meet the military's need for a temporary, portable, efficient, standalone issuance system.

"The Navy started this, and the Air Force thought it was a good idea," Fister said. "We're talking to the Army about it now," though it has not yet placed any orders.