NSA taps SAIC for Trailblazer

The National Security Agency's Trailblazer initiative is moving from the planning stages to development with the agency's recent award of a multimillion-dollar, multiyear acquisition contract to a team led by Science Applications International Corp.

Trailblazer is an initiative designed to modernize NSA's foreign signals intelligence capabilities across the enterprise. The SAIC deal, which was awarded Sept. 18 and is for a 26-month performance period, focuses on the development of the Technology Demonstration Platform (TDP) supporting the program, according to an NSA spokesperson.

"This marks a significant shift in the Trailblazer program from a planning to a development activity," the spokesperson said. "The TDP is the first large-scale industry systems integration contract awarded under the Trailblazer acquisition program. It represents a significant step forward in NSA's transformation."

The SAIC team will provide and integrate commercial technologies that are scalable, secure and interoperable in solutions to meet NSA's current and future needs, according to the agency.

"The TDP is a risk-reduction activity," the NSA spokesperson said. "The TDP will play a critical role for the agency in understanding and managing risk associated with large-scale integration and the acquisition of a complete, integrated [signals intelligence] capability."

SAIC's team members are Booz Allen Hamilton, Northrop Grumman Corp., Boeing Co. and Computer Sciences Corp., according to San Diego-based SAIC.

The NSA spokesperson said that Trailblazer is still in the concept development phase and a completion date will be established once the program reaches Milestone B, probably next summer.