The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is seeking bids for a project designed to increase the military’s high-capacity bandwidth. The project, known as the Global Information Grid-Bandwidth Expansion program (GIG-BE), is expected to cost $877 million over 10 years and serve more than 90 worldwide Department of Defense sites.
The DISA proposal includes specifications for equipment and fiber optic cable to support an eventual voice, data and image backbone for a network-centric operation. The project will support 10 gigabytes per second of usable IP with the goal of combining the U.S. military and intelligence agencies into a single architecture.
The military said it might name as many as nine contract winners for the project or it might combine services under one contract with the winning bidder supplying equipment, fiber, network management, security and transport.
Interested bibbers have until April 8 to reply to the DISA request for proposal.