Eight Win $8B Defense Message System Deal

Eight companies, each with a contract ceiling of $1 billion, have been picked by the Pentagon IT Services Center to provide products and services for the Department of Defense's Defense Message System.

The companies are:

*Booz-Allen & Hamilton Inc., McLean, Va.

*Computer & Hi-tech Management Inc., McLean.

*CommPower, Camarillo, Calif.

*Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md.

*Northrop Grumman Corp., Los Angeles

*Open Systems Sciences Inc., Newington, Va.

*Science Applications International Corp., San Diego

*Telos Corp., Ashburn, Va.

The contract will run until October 2006. The contracting office was the Procurement Operations Branch of the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service.

The contract was awarded Oct. 23, though awardees were not announced until Nov. 8.

Companies will provide products and services for the Defense Message System, the replacement for the secure messaging system, the Automatic Digital Network, known as Autodin.

Hardware and software must be certified by the Defense Information Systems Agency to securely process and protect high-level classified data, voice and video.

"This is a premier contract for us," said Larry Tureson, chief executive officer of Open Systems Sciences. "We can bring our digital message system expertise to the Department of Defense and other agencies. We also hope to work closely with other vendors to provide these services."