McLean's SAIC Awarded $59 Million Contract to Continue Marine Mammal Training Program

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PHOTO: A Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) with a locator beacon. Photo courtesy of the US Navy, photo by photographer’s mate 1st Class Brien Aho

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You might not think that a company in McLean would have something to do with dolphins and sea lions, but McLean-headquartered Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) provides the personnel and training for marine mammals for the U.S. Navy.

The mammals are used to find and mark the location of underwater objects such as mines.

The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SSC) Pacific recently awarded SAIC a “prime task order” to continue to provide training and care for marine mammals participating in the Navy’s Marine Mammal Systems (MMS) based at naval submarine bases in Kings Bay, Ga.; San Diego, and Bangor, Washington, according to a news release from the company.

The deal has a total contract value of approximately $59 million, if all options are exercised, according to the release.

Under the task order, held for more than 25 years, SAIC provides the necessary personnel, training and continuous education curriculums, and administrative support required to provide support for the care and training to the animals and to operate/maintain MMS. This includes all necessary material and travel required to support the MMS throughout the United States and globally.

“We are proud to continue our long-term support to SSC-Pacific on MMS. These systems are critical components of the Navy’s surveillance and reconnaissance and force protection missions,” said Tom Watson, senior vice president and general manager of the Navy and Marine Corps Customer Group. “We, along with the Navy, are committed to ensuring that the Navy’s animals are well cared for and properly trained for the mission to help keep those at sea safe from harm.”

Last year, a 29-year-old government contract worker training in San Diego died during training.

See how the dolphins in the program work, in this video from the U.S. Navy: