HERNDON, Va., Dec. 16, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE:NOC) Information Technology (IT) sector has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Department of State to continue providing staff to conduct peacekeeping operations and humanitarian assistance training for the African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program.
The contract has a potential value of $50 million over the initial base year and four options years.
"The ACOTA program's mission is to improve an African nation's ability to prevent, mitigate, and resolve crises, promote regional stability and fight terrorism," said Gregg Donley, president, Technical Services, Northrop Grumman IT. "We are delighted to continue to be a valued member of the ACOTA program."
"The ACOTA training is designed to enhance participating nations' military capacity to develop trained units capable of participating in humanitarian relief and crisis operations," said Mike Devlin, International Programs director, Technical Services, Northrop Grumman IT. "Our broad experience with Department of Defense and State military training programs has enabled us to continue successfully supporting the ACOTA mission."
Northrop Grumman IT will provide the staff and training to select African nations through seminars, instruction, simulation-supported exercises and field training. Nations currently participating in the ACOTA program include Benin, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Malawi and Senegal. Northrop Grumman IT has supported the African Crisis Response Initiative/African Contingency Operations Training Assistance (ACRI/ACOTA) program since its inception in 1998 and designed the initial training materials and conducted computer-assisted peacekeeping exercises for African partner nations.
Work on the ACOTA program will be performed on site in the participating African nations and from Northrop Grumman IT's Leavenworth, Kan., facility, where Northrop Grumman IT supports several other military training contracts.
Northrop Grumman IT, based in Herndon, Va., is a trusted IT leader and premier provider of advanced IT solutions, engineering and business services for government and commercial clients. The company's expertise spans such areas as information systems integration; information technology security; command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; homeland security; enterprise hardware and software solutions; training and simulation; base and range support; signals intelligence; health informatics; space systems; and specialized scientific, engineering and technical services.
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