HII division awarded $133M Air National Guard contract

Huntington Ingalls Industries’ McLean-based Mission Technologies division won a $133 million contract by the U.S. Air National Guard to support and provide training for flying units.

HII, which made the announcement Wednesday, said this will be accomplished through live, virtual and constructive training in a 10-year task order. Mission Technologies will provide expertise and staffing for distributed mission operations events in the U.S. Air National Guard’s Distributed Training Operations Center, which is located on the Des Moines Air National Guard base. The center is housed in the 132d Combat Training Squadron and connects more than 90 simulation sites nationwide.

The company will also provide Air National Guard pilot training and training opportunities for the joint forces.

“Incorporating live, virtual, constructive elements into training dramatically increases the level of realism for air units and enables them to enhance the critical skills needed to succeed in the face of global threats,” Michael Lempke, president of Mission Technologies’ global security group, said in a statement. “Our team is focused on the warfighter mission and is pleased to provide customized training solutions for our nation’s citizen airmen and U.S. Marine Corps command and control units.”

HII will implement a software interface used by the U.S. Department of Defense called the Joint Simulation Bus to modernize the DTOC’s gateway connection. It will also use HII’s distributed mission operations test tools recently made available to Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Advanced Training Capabilities Program Office.

Work will primarily be performed in Des Moines, Iowa.

“We are pleased to expand our services for the DTOC as part of HII’s ever-growing portfolio of U.S. Air Force aviation training programs,” John Scorsone, director for modeling, training and simulation in the global security group, said in a statement.

Newport News-based HII is the nation’s largest military shipbuilder and the largest industrial employer in Virginia. The Fortune 500 company employs about 44,000 workers. The Mission Technologies division has more than 7,000 employees and more than 100 facilities globally.