In November 2005, “$355.2M for MITRE from the US Air Force” covered exactly what the title implied. This year, the Headquarters Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, MA issued a $312 million cost-plus-fixed fee contract for systems engineering and integration support in FY 2007. Support level is estimated at 926 direct staff years for the Air Force ceiling programs (929 in FY 2006) and 131 direct staff years for the Air Force non-ceiling program (131 in FY 2006). As it did last year, the effort also supports foreign military sales with Britain, France, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. At this time, $8.3 million has been obligated, and work will be complete in October 2007. The Headquarters Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, MA issued the contract (FA8721-07-C-0001).
MITRE was formed in 1958 as a not-for-profit corporation under the leadership of C.W. Halligan, and has a long-standing cross-fertilization with MIT. It manages three Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs): one for the Department of Defense (known as the DOD Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence FFRDC), one for the Federal Aviation Administration (the Center for Advanced Aviation System Development), and one for the Internal Revenue Service (the Center for Enterprise Modernization). MITRE also has its own independent research and development program that explores new technologies and new uses of technologies to solve its sponsors’ problems in the near-term and in the future.