USAF To Dole Out $9 Billion On Beefed Up Network

The U.S. Air Force has announced contractors selected for its massive $9 billion IT Network Centric Solutions (NETCENTS) program.

The program will cover contracts for "information technology, networking, telephony and security, voice, video and data communications, commercial off-the-shelf products, system solutions and systems hardware and software," the Department of Defense said.

Due to its large size, contracts will be broken down into smaller contracts, said Juli Ballesteros, spokeswoman for Northrop Grumman Corp., one of the lead contractors.

"Companies will compete with each other through task orders," she said.

Northrop Grumman's Information Technology sector will compete for task orders " individual subcontracts " in areas ranging from network engineering and software development to IT infrastructure modernization and integration. The Northrop unit will also bid for work on information storage and management as well as security and telephone services.Additional lead contractors include the Centech Group, Multimax, NCI, Booz-Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics, and Lockheed-Martin. Most of the contractors have formed teams consisting of additional firms, Ballesteros said. For instance Northrop Grumman has teamed up with Computer Sciences Corp., Germany's T-Systems, and Dell Inc. The Northrop Grumman team also includes 24 small business partners.

A team headed by Lockheed Martin includes Lucent Technologies, IBM Global Services, SBC Communications and Avaya. General Dynamics' team includes Accenture, Boeing, Raytheon and Unisys.

In a statement, General Dynamics said its Network Systems team will "offer system integration solutions and services enabling the enhancement of Air Force data networks, telephony, security, an information technology. Additionally, nearly 80,000 commercial-off-the-shelf information technology products will be available."

All work on the project is expected to be completed by September 2009.