SAIC's military maneuver
Under a $6.3 million Army contract awarded to Science Applications International Corp., information technologies developed for hospitals, universities, businesses and schools would be used to command missiledefense systems
Under a $6.3 million Army contract awarded to Science Applications International
Corp., information technologies developed for hospitals, universities, businesses
and schools would be used to command missile-defense systems.
The contract, awarded July 18 by the Army Space and Missile Defense
Command, supports the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's Wide Bandwidth
Information Infrastructure program. The Army wants to create a network for
geographically distributed ground test facilities for the Theater High Altitude
Area Defense and Navy Theater Wide Missile Defense.
SAIC will also focus on networking technologies that meet national security
requirements for distributing imagery data needed by developers who are
tackling some of the tough algorithm issues associated with ballistic missile
defense.
SAIC received the award "based on the information technology and wide
bandwidth applications SAIC is integrating for the Hospitals, Universities,
Businesses and Schools [HUBS] program," according to SAIC. HUBS has been
supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Education
Department.
HUBS aims to establish the world's first "smart region" in Delaware,
Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania by creating an environment that will
foster business growth, create new job opportunities and develop telemedicine,
health data analysis and technology-based education programs.
To achieve those goals, SAIC is developing a suite of IT applications,
including data fusion, data warehousing, data mining, distributed modeling
and simulation, telemedicine, distance learning, and collaborative design
and engineering. The HUBS project grew out of a working group established
by Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Military Research and Development
Subcommittee, and Da Hsuan Feng, general manager of HUBS for SAIC.
Although theater missile-defense technologies may seem an odd adaptation
for HUBS technologies, Weldon said they are a natural fit.
"The technical capabilities being developed and integrated for HUBS
have direct applicability for the nation's defense systems," Weldon said
in a written statement. "By finding solutions to the information technology
challenges posed by creating the nation's first four-state smart region,
HUBS is helping to improve our national security."
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