Air Force picks four companies for space command support

Air Force picks four companies for space command support

By William Welsh
Special to the Washington Post

Two large companies and two small businesses will vie for $610 million worth of consulting, engineering and technical services with the Air Force Space Command over the next five years.

SI International Inc. of Fairfax, Va., and Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. of McLean, Va., were selected as the two large companies on a contract where awardees will compete for individual tasks. Also tapped were two small businesses ? bd Systems Inc., a provider of aerospace engineering and information systems services in Torrance, Calif.; and Scitor Corp. of Herndon, Va., a provider of systems engineering and information systems services.

The companies will compete for work at the space command's headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Work will range from management and professional services to engineering and technical services to studies and evaluations.

The Space Command is responsible for U.S. space and intercontinental ballistic missile operations, including the Global Positioning System, satellite communications systems and intelligence systems.

Brad Antle, SI International's president and chief operating officer, said the company will compete for the all the services offered under the contract. The award demonstrates that SI International can go head to head for federal contracts with any company no matter how large the job, he said.

"We don't need to be an aerospace giant to compete on the large contracts," Antle said.

SI International has more than 1,300 employees and annual sales of $168.3 million, while Booz Allen has more than 14,700 employees and annual sales of $2.5 billion.

SI's team includes Northrop Grumman TASC of Chantilly, a systems engineering company, and URS Corp. of San Francisco, an engineering services firm.

Booz Allen has been working for the Air Force Space Command for over a decade and will concentrate on providing services such as strategic and operational consulting, said Kurt Stevens, a company vice president.

The work parallels the company's Enterprise Breadth Major Services Acquisition project for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. Booz Allen provided acquisition and program management support, engineering services, and acquisition of integrated command and control, information technology and space capabilities, he said.

The company's team includes more than 20 companies, many of which are Colorado-based small businesses, Stevens said. Virginia-based teammates include Arrowhead Global Solutions, AT&T Government Solutions, and SRA International Inc.

The size of the contract is significant, Stevens said. "We and our teammates are taking it very seriously and want the opportunity to continue to deliver excellent results for the [Air Force] Space Command," he said.