USJFCOM Awards $1B in Contracts to Help Improve the Way America Fights

The U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) awarded 4 major defense contractors up to $1 billion in contracts to provide analysis, research and development, concept development and support. The new contracts replace a large contract that is scheduled to expire July 31/09.

The winning firms will support USJFCOM’s Joint Concept Development and Experimentation Directorate (J9), which coordinates U.S. Department of Defense efforts to explore how the future military can successfully operate in complex, ever-changing and uncertain environments. J9 runs exercises, undertakes technology development, and works with the military to develop better “concepts of operations” and ways of doing things…

$9.8M to Harris for F/A-18 Fibre Channel Switches

Harris Corp of Melbourne, FL recently announced a $9.8 million follow-on contract to provide 209 fibre channel network switches for the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet and for other military aircraft. The new award brings the total value of Harris’ switch development and production contracts to more than $55 million.

Under the new award, Harris will supply 188 switches for U.S. Navy Lot 33 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters, the derivative EA-18G Growler electronic warfare jets, and E-2D Hawkeye AWACS surveillance aircraft; for F/A-18F and EA-18G supplemental aircraft; and also for retrofitting of F/A-18E/F production lots 26-28. The contract also will provide 21 switches for Australian F/A-18F Block II aircraft under the Foreign Military Sales program. Harris will produce the switches in Melbourne, FL and expects to complete the work by December 2010.

Fibre channel network switches are a component of the aircraft’s onboard computers and displays. They provide the fibre channel protocols required for high-speed communications between computing elements, and for line-speed synchronous switching.

Up to $21M to SAIC for DoD Cyber Security Training

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in San Diego, CA recently announced that it will provide cyber security training to Department of Defense (DoD) personnel, via a prime task order under the Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) omnibus ENCORE II contract. The task order has a 1-year base period of performance and 4 one-year options, with a total value of more than $21 million if all options are exercised.

The instruction is technically termed “information assurance” (IA), which steps beyond technology security and into the ways in which information is handled. IA and cyber-security can merge, of course, as they did when a senior defense executive took work home to an unsecured system; information about the VH-60N Presidential helicopter’s avionics subsequently ended up on servers in Iran. So, what will SAIC do to help stem the tide?