SAIC Integrates, Extends Life of Systems for Navy

ARLINGTON, Va. — One might be surprised that one of the most well-known companies in defense work does not manufacture any systems or equipment, but it has a wide portfolio of systems for which it serves as an integrator. SAIC focuses of a lot of its Navy business on service-life extension of systems.

“We’re the second largest independent technology integrator in government services right now,” Rick Sabol, senior vice president, operations, NAVSEA and NAVAIR Operations, at SAIC, said in a July 8 interview with Seapower.

“What sets us apart: we don’t build anything. We are always working on the government side as an agnostic partner with them using whatever technologies they choose. We facilitate the integration thereof, be it on platform or systems or what have you.”

SAIC, which is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, has 23,000 employees and an annual revenue of $6.5 billion. Sabol oversees the company’s work for Naval Air Systems Command and Naval Sea Systems Command.

Sabol said SAIC has three main areas for its business: engineering and platform integration; enterprise information technology; and logistics readiness and supply.

“We think we are in a particular niche where we excel,” Sabol said. “We’re in that niche in the middle where we can provide the engineering development support. We can sustain systems and platforms throughout their life cycle for the customer.”

“We think we are successful because some of [original equipment manufacturers] are focused on selling the new shiny toy that costs a lot of money,” he said. “But we know that the Navy right now with its budget constraint has issues in service-life extension [which] we are focusing on in that middle area to help the Navy and the warfighter extend the life of existing systems at a much more economical cost.”

A recent example of SAIC’s integration work is its offering in the competition for an amphibious combat vehicle for the Marine Corps. SAIC did not build any of the proposed vehicle or its systems and subsystems but subcontracted that work and brought all the components and integrated them into the full-up vehicle.

SAIC also has a role in the restart of production of the Mark 48 submarine-launched torpedo. The company is integrating all the components of the afterbody and tailcone of the weapon, including the propulsion system, which are being built by other companies. The integration involves 26 major subassemblies made up of 500 piece parts.

The integration occurs at one of SAIC’s product support centers, in this case the one near the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane in Bedford, Indiana.

At Lakehurst, New Jersey, home of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division Lakehurst, the SAIC depot modernizes and refurbishes aircraft racks for bombs and other stores. The company also integrates upgrades into surface and land-based radars for the Navy and Marine Corps; C4I (command, control, communications, computer, and intelligence) systems. The ground-based observation system towers built for the Army were integrated by SAIC.