NCI Seals $41 Million Deal to Support Army Cyber Ops

NCI Information Systems has nabbed a contract worth up to $41 million to support Army cyber network operations at a command that recently activated the service's first-ever cyber protection brigade, according to Pentagon officials. 

The Reston, Virginia-based contractor will work with the Network Enterprise Technology Command, or NETCOM, G-5 on an effort to strengthen and sync data operations in the Army and between partner troops. 

The project is expected to finish by April 2018. Ten other unidentified vendors competed for the award, which was announced Wednesday.

On Sept. 5, in Fort Gordon, Georgia, NETCOM launched the Army’s first cyber protection brigade. It will consist of cyber protection teams, one of three types of Cyber Command forces that specializes in defending military networks, Pentagon officials said at the time. The other two forces focus on deflecting cyberattacks against the domestic United States and combating adversaries in cyberspace. 

A draft December 2013 solicitation states the new contract will provide "enterprise standards; operational requirements reviews; functional requirements management; architecture, design, and implementation plan reviews; and Information assurance (IA)/systems & Security and operational engineering for IT systems and networks that are secure, responsive, and available to the users for whom they support." 

NCI has worked with NETCOM for many years to, among other things, optimize enterprisewide networks and install passive optical networks, which bring fiber cabling nearly all the way to the end user, according to company officials. 

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