FBI Awards $38M Contract To BAE Systems

The FBI, under fire for problems with its IT Virtual Case File (VCF), has awarded a five-year, $38 million contract to BAE Systems North America to support some of its network infrastructure, including routers and switches for servers and e-mail.

The work was awarded through the Justice Department's Information Technology Support Services-3 contract.

Microsoft Corp. will work closely with BAE, according to the Washington Post.

Although the BAE work is not directly related to the FBI's VCF, it is likely to have peripheral value for that troubled project, which is late and facing possible downsizing. The $170 million VCF project was designed to improve the FBI's IT-based information gathering. Republican Senator Judd Gregg, of New Hampshire, has called the VCF project a "catastrophic failure."