WASHINGTON — The Space Force awarded Booz Allen Hamilton a $630 million contract for engineering and integration services for the service’s missile tracking and surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking capabilities, the company announced Oct. 4.
Under the seven-year agreement, the Virginia-based consulting firm and defense contractor will provide digital engineering, software development, cybersecurity and AI support to programs across the service’s space sensing portfolio, including Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared missile warning spacecraft and ground systems and the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, which provides weather monitoring capabilities.
Booz Allen originally won the contract last year, but the deal was delayed due to protests from ManTech International and Science Applications International Corp., who both competed for the effort. SAIC was the incumbent on the contract.
Eric Hoffman, the company’s vice president of space systems, told C4ISRNET in an Oct. 2 interview that while Booz Allen’s work will focus on the needs of the Space Force’s acquisition arm, Space Systems Command, the company will also work closely with other organizations like the Space Development Agency, Missile Defense Agency and the intelligence community, which are developing complementary systems within the space sensing portfolio.
“While the work itself is for SSC, there’s an expectation that the integration needs to happen across the space enterprise,” he said.
As the military grow its reliance on space-based systems for missile warning and surveillance data, portfolio-wide integration contracts like this help ensure collaboration across systems, Hoffman said, providing a more complete understanding of threats in orbit.
“In the past, the development of these systems was very stovepiped,” he said. “It was like, develop your system, deliver it and then just use it. That is no longer sufficient given where the threats [are] are going.”
Along with helping inform the development process for satellites and ground systems, the company will support operators through integrated digital engineering and simulation capabilities to help improve their picture of what’s happening in the space domain.
“The intent around this being a mission integration effort is to bring all those pieces together,” Hoffman said.
Work on the contract will be performed in El Segundo, California as well as Colorado Springs and Aurora, Colorado.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.
