HII [HII] on Wednesday said its Mission Technologies segment won the $1.4 billion Joint Network Engineering and Emerging Operations (J-NEEO) task order, which support a program office within the Defense Department’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU).
The award is the largest ever for the Mission Technologies segment, eclipsing a $1.3 billion contract the business won in April to provide personnel recovery enterprise services and solutions (PRESS) to U.S. Africa Command. The PRESS order has a base-year and six one-year options while J-NEEO has a base-year and four one-year options. Both task orders were awarded under the General Services Administration’s ASTRO contract vehicle.
The J-NEEO contract supports the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) and its mission partners. The NSIN brings together defense, academic and other innovators to find new ways to solve national security problems.
HII said the support for NSIN will be around emerging technologies in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems and related cybersecurity, communications and information assurance.
The win builds on work HII has been doing for the NSIN via its acquisition more than two years ago of Alion Science and Technology combined with investments the company has made in technology and people, Andy Green, president of Mission Technologies, told reporters on Thursday during a conference call.
Green also said the size of the J-NEEO award is “blessing and a curse” in that it is big enough to “move the needle” for Mission Technologies’ sales, which means the business must pursue other large contracts to do the same.
Mission Technologies projects to have about $2.5 billion in sales this year. Through the first seven months of 2023, the segment’s orders have totaled nearly $4 billion.
Todd Gentry, president of the C5ISR business group within Mission Technologies, said the J-NEEO win coupled with other big contracts will allow the business to build relationships with potential new customers, expanding the company’s “brand awareness” and opening door and giving it an opportunity to examine how to grow the business further.
The previous work won by Alion was the Joint Capability Embedded Technology Insertion and Integration task order.