WASHINGTON — Artificial intelligence and cloud-analytics company BigBear.ai won a $14.8 million, nine-month Army contract to roll out the service’s Global Force Information Management system.
The Maryland-based firm will implement the platform, which provides leaders an automated and holistic view of manpower, equipment, training, readiness and more, with the help of Palantir Technologies.
The system, referred to as GFIM, will consolidate 14 aging applications and provide real-time data to up to 160,000 Army users. It will also automate a slate of tasks that were previously done manually, such as determining unit readiness.
“GFIM will radically transform and streamline the end-to-end business processes the Army uses to develop a future force and provide a current force,” Lori Mongold, the Army’s GFIM chief management officer, said in a Sept. 29 statement. “By merging historically distinct, major processes into an automated standalone environment, we will establish a critical foundation for integrating the business and warfighting mission areas to drive our digital transformation forward.”
Modernization of the Army’s networks and underlying computer infrastructure is among the service’s most pressing priorities. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth in a February memo to the force said achieving digital fluency and data centricity was her No. 2 objective.
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The contract award follows BigBear’s previous work on and delivery of a GFIM prototype during an initial phase last year. A November announcement from the company did not include financial details.
“This contract supports the continuation of BigBear.ai’s efforts to deliver on the secretary’s goal of ensuring the Army embraces new technologies to become a more data-centric fighting force,” Ryan Legge, president of analytics at BigBear, said in a statement. “With BigBear.ai’s artificial intelligence capabilities, the Army can streamline processes and quickly make data-driven decisions on force structure, balance and readiness while bringing new levels of efficiency and confidence to every critical decision maker from senior leadership to combatant commanders.”
Palantir on Thursday also said the U.S. Army Research Laboratory will extend its work with the company, as the Department of Defense tests, implements and expands its usage of AI and machine learning.
The contract, Palantir said in an announcement, is worth up to $229 million over the course of one year. The Denver-based company first partnered with the lab in 2018.
Colin Demarest was a reporter at C4ISRNET, where he covered military networks, cyber and IT. Colin had previously covered the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration — namely Cold War cleanup and nuclear weapons development — for a daily newspaper in South Carolina. Colin is also an award-winning photographer.
