McDonald Bradley Wins Defense IT Work

McDonald Bradley of Herndon has won a contract from the Defense Intelligence Agency worth up to $15 million over five years to develop a Web-based Force Protection Assessment system.

The online system will provide DIA users with more and better information from an assortment of intelligence community databases so the agency can better protect assets such as employees, buildings and equipment, said Ken Bartee, McDonald Bradley's chief executive.

"This is part of a new effort at DIA, but it closely aligns with other things we have done for them," Bartee said. "The expectation is that different capabilities will be delivered along the continuum. This is just the beginning."

The company will deliver the core capabilities of the system during the first year, he said.

McDonald Bradley also will use new analytical technologies to find information in Defense Department and federal intelligence community databases. One of those technologies comes from McDonald Bradley's subcontractor, Thetus of Portland, Ore. It will provide software that performs predictive modeling on the relationships between information. Bartee declined to provide more information about the system, citing its classified nature. But he said it builds on other work the company is doing for the DIA.

McDonald Bradley also is developing the All Source Intelligence Environment, or Alien, under a separate contract. Alien lets users discover and use data more quickly than before through technology that makes disparate databases searchable, Bartee said.

The All Source Intelligence Environment will be a part of the new Force Protection Assessment system, Bartee said.

McDonald Bradley, a privately held firm founded in 1985, last month agreed to be acquired by ManTech International for $76.5 million in cash. The deal is expected to close in the next two weeks, Bartee said. He added that McDonald Bradley's work on defense and intelligence projects helped spark Fairfax-based ManTech's interest in his company.

DIA contracts account for about 25 percent of McDonald Bradley's federal contract revenue. Bartee said the company's revenue is expected to be more than $50 million in 2007. Other large federal customers include the Drug Enforcement Agency, CIA and the Justice and Homeland Security departments, he said.

Bartee said McDonald Bradley's 300 employees will continue to work as a separate company until 2009, when the two companies are expected to be fully integrated.

Jason Miller is news editor for Federal Computer Week. For more information on this and other contracts, go tohttp://www.fcw.com.