SAIC wins $50 million defense deal

Science Applications International Corp., San Diego, won a five-year, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract worth about $50 million to support networking at the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the company announced Monday.

Under the contract, SAIC will support the Joint Chiefs' Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems Directorate in developing the Global Information Grid, an initiative to improve networking among the military services.

SAIC will help protect the critical infrastructure, operate the wireless and broadband networks and assess the suitability of commercial technologies, such as voice over Internet protocol and optical switching.

The work will support the newly formed U.S. Northern Command as well as the Strategic Command. Work will be carried out at the Pentagon and command sites as needed.

"The SAIC team offers outstanding domain knowledge of evolving [command, control, communications, computers and intelligence] systems and their associated missions, as well as in-depth technical expertise in telecommunications and sensors," said Gerald Anderson, senior vice president and manager of the SAIC Information Technology Solutions Group.

SAIC's team includes Electronic Data Systems Corp., Global Broadband Solutions LLC, Opnet Technologies Inc. and Titan Corp.