DOD awards $1B contract to Peraton to counter misinformation
The Department of Defense has awarded a task order worth up to $979 million over a five-year period to Peraton to counter misinformation from U.S. adversaries.
The contractor will provide services to U.S. Central Command and its mission partners with operational planning, implementation and assessment services.
Peraton has undertaken such work for Central Command since 2016 under its counter-threat messaging support program, and according to the company, the latest contract represents a doubling of work already scheduled to be carried out under the program.
Commenting on the contract, Tom Afferton, president of Peraton’s cyber missions sector, said: “Since 2016, Peraton has executed campaigns to promote regional security and stability. Our ability to provide the U.S. government with insight, expertise, and influence helps ensure the safety of Americans, our allies, and the more than 550 million people under U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility, spanning three continents and 20 nations.”
The award comes after Peraton earlier this month won an IT infrastructure contract from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which could be worth up to $497 million over seven years.
The Virginia company will provide infrastructure-as-a-managed service for storage and computing infrastructure facilities across the U.S. and globally. Announcing the award, Peraton said it will deliver an enterprise-scale solution that integrates on-premise infrastructure with the VA’s enterprise cloud architecture.
Since 2016, the Department of Defense has worked with private sector contractors to counter-messaging from U.S. adversaries including ISIS across media, including social networks.
The fiscal 2016 defense authorization bill included a clause stating that the secretary of Defense should develop “creative and agile concepts, technologies, and strategies” across all available media to counter and degrade the ability of adversaries to persuade, inspire and recruit.
