Air Force chooses 17 for $499M anti-tampering tech contract

Gettyimages.com / Sarayut Thaneerat

Three incumbents will continue onto this expanded iteration of the program focused on defending against unintended technology transfers or alterations by adversaries.

The Air Force has awarded 17 companies positions on a potential six-year, $499 million contract vehicle to develop products that work to prevent military program information and technologies from adversarial tampering efforts.

Anti-tampering also refers to the deterrence, prevention, delay or response to reverse engineering attempts that may lead to an unintended technology transfer or alteration of a military system.

The Air Force received 20 offers for this recompete of the contract first awarded in 2016 to three companies, the Department of Defense said Wednesday.

While the Air Force manages the contract, the products to be purchased through the vehicle will be integrated into a wide range of Defense Department programs. Companies will compete for delivery orders to provide those products.

The Anti Tamper Executive Agent Program Office Multiple Award IDIQ contract's key development areas include sensors and cryptographic protection.

Each incumbent made the awardee list:

  • Battelle
  • Boeing
  • Draper (incumbent)
  • Chip Scan
  • General Dynamics’ mission systems business
  • GE (incumbent)
  • Honeywell International
  • Idaho Scientific
  • Kratos Defense and Security Solutions
  • L3Harris Technologies
  • Lockheed Martin
  • Mercury Systems (incumbent)
  • Microsemi SOC
  • Northrop Grumman
  • Radiance Technologies
  • RTX’s Raytheon segment
  • Sabre Systems