HERNDON, Va., 9 March 2005. McDonald Bradley, Inc. (MBI) today announced it has received formal notification from the Department of Defense that it received an $11.1 million award as the prime contractor for the Horizontal Fusion Portfolio Collateral Space Initiative at the Defense Intelligence Agency.
In addition, the first phase of this project -- in development for the past two years -- went live on March 1st with the 18th Airborne Corps of the U.S. Army in Iraq.
The 18th Airborne Corps, based in Fort Bragg, N.C., commands the Multinational Corps in Iraq. As an example of how this first installment of the project -- the Collateral Space initiative -- is being used, qualified technicians on patrol in Iraq can use their laptops and a highly secure, secret military network to access the precise information they need to decommission improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and homemade roadside bombs as these are located in the field.
The troops will be able to quickly and seamlessly search large quantities of information to identify the specific explosive device found, locate instructions for defusing it, and even engage in a real-time, instant message session with U.S. military experts at home or abroad to get step-by-step guidance on the actual procedures.
"Seeing this first phase of this ambitious technology development and integration program come to fruition is exciting for our team that created it, for our entire Company and for our armed forces that will ultimately benefit from its availability and use," said Kenneth Bartee, president and CEO, McDonald Bradley. "We are proud to play such an essential role in the DoD's overall net-centric warfare vision, and to lead the effort to equip our warfighters with 21st century information technology to enhance both their success and the speed in which it is achieved."
At the foundation of the Horizontal Fusion portfolio, McDonald Bradley has deployed a web-based, services-oriented architecture approach that pulls multiple, disparate information repositories together, allows them to be shared and searched easily and seamlessly, and presents requested information to the user very quickly-on a global basis. To execute the program McDonald Bradley provides architecture, system engineering, design, development, configuration management, COTS integration, testing and 24x7 operations and maintenance.
Under this new $11.1 million contract, McDonald Bradley will be adding enhanced, high integrity search capabilities to the system, the inclusion of searchable images, and the ability to rapidly search ever growing numbers of separate databases simultaneously. Further, the Company will be integrating new data sources from the intelligence community to the network. Troops will also be able to set up their own syndication feeds that will proactively deliver intelligence data related to topics of interest -- without their intervention.
"Ultimately, our services-oriented architecture will enable thousands of disparate information systems to 'talk' to each other and to collaborate in solving problems for military personnel, whether in the Department of Defense headquarters or on the battlefield," said Bartee. "This new contract enables us to continue to transform information from stovepipe configurations to this new, net-centric configuration that makes it more effective and useful."
McDonald Bradley is a privately-held information technology solutions provider to the government marketplace with headquarters in Herndon, Va. Since it was founded in 1985, it has steadily built an exceptional reputation in delivering IT solutions to defense, intelligence, homeland security, federal law enforcement and federal civil clients, averaging 32 percent growth each year since 1994. Core technology expertise includes: visual intelligence services, service-oriented architectures, Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V), and web and systems development services. For more information, see www.mcdonaldbradley.com.
