AT&T to manage Army network center in Kuwait

The Theater Network Operations and Security Center in Kuwait will serve as the Army’s link to the Global Information Grid.

AT&T Government Solutions won a $22.7 million contract to help staff and manage a Theater Network Operations and Security Center in Kuwait. The center will support military commands in Asia and Africa, the company said.

The center will serve as the Army’s link to the Global Information Grid (GIG), a worldwide Defense Department network that the Defense Information Systems Agency operates, AT&T said.

The company will provide expertise in wide-area network security, operations and information assurance to ITT Industries, the prime contractor for the center, an AT&T spokesman said. The contract does not call for the provision of circuits, the spokesman added.

The AT&T spokesman said he could not provide other details on the contract and referred calls to ITT.

Federal Computer Week called four public relations employees at ITT for further information on the contract and had not received an answer as of deadline.

U.S. Central Command plans to beef up its network infrastructure serving the command in the Middle East with high-speed fiber-optic circuits to link Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar to GIG.

Centcom also plans to install network operation centers and forward data centers in the region. Centcom was still working on a query from FCW about how the AT&T Kuwait center fits into this plan.