FAIRFAX, Va., Feb. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) today announced it was awarded a new $505 million contract by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS) to provide supercomputing resources as-a-service through NOAA's Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputing System (WCOSS) contract. The systems will be designed, deployed and managed by GDIT and used to perform intense modeling of weather and climate patterns for use in generating forecast products supporting the National Weather Service.

The single-award indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) blanket purchase agreement (BPA) holds a total estimated value of $505 million. It includes a base period of eight years with one two-year option. Through this contract, GDIT will receive task orders related to high-performance computing (HPC) deliverables, including an initial task order of $150 million.

"We are excited to expand our work with NOAA and support their critical weather forecasting mission through GDIT's supercomputing and data center solutions," said Vice President Kevin Connell, head of GDIT's Science and Engineering Business Area. "Through this contract, the National Weather Service will expand their current computing power by more than 200 percent and continue to optimize their ability to provide accurate and timely weather forecasts. On behalf of GDIT's company-wide High Performance Computing Center of Excellence, we look forward to supporting the National Weather Service's numerical weather prediction and helping NOAA protect lives and property."

"This contract represents an important step in NOAA's journey to foster even more precise weather forecasts," said Senior Vice President Paul Nedzbala, head of GDIT's Federal Civilian Division. "GDIT is proud to join NOAA and provide impressive innovations that support our federal customers and their important mission."

Through this contract, GDIT will deploy two HPC systems at two sites on separate electrical power grids to support the numerical weather prediction suite of models used in national weather forecasting.

The contract will provide two equal computing systems with one serving as the operational system and the other primarily used for development when serving as the backup. This will ensure operational readiness in the event that one system goes down, enabling the immediate transition of operations from one site to the other within minutes.

GDIT is a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), a global aerospace and defense company that offers a broad portfolio of products and services in business aviation; combat vehicles, weapons systems and munitions; IT services; C4ISR solutions; and shipbuilding and ship repair. General Dynamics employs more than 100,000 people worldwide and generated $39.4 billion in revenue in 2019. More information about GDIT is available at www.gdit.com. More information about General Dynamics is available at www.gd.com.

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SOURCE General Dynamics Information Technology