- Details
- By Tribal Business News Staff
- Native Contracting
HERNDON, Va. — RiverTech LLC, a federal contracting subsidiary of the Alaska Native-owned Akima, will provide information technology services to the military working dog division of the U.S. Air Force.
Under the six-year contract, Colorado Springs, Colo.-based RiverTech, a U.S. Small Business Administration 8(a) certified contractor, will offer I.T. support for the Department of Defense’s cloud-based Working Dog Management System and the system’s software sustainment lab, according to a statement.
The Working Dog Management System has more than 20,000 records that track the identity, medical status, training, certification, operational assignment and disposition of military working dogs. The system includes all working dogs that have been evaluated, acquired and deployed by the Department of Defense.
Military working dog trainee Cezar. Courtesy photo.
If all the federal options are exercised, the contract via the Security Forces Center could be valued at around $9 million for RiverTech, according to a statement.
“This contract further extends Akima’s support of the IT systems that are critical to the missions of our defense customers,” Duncan Greene, President of Akima’s Mission Systems, Engineering & Technology Group, said in statement. “We are proud to support the Military Working Dog Training Squadron with IT support that ensures proper maintenance of a complex and multi-faceted system.”
RiverTech secured the contract under the federal government’s One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) program for small businesses.
The 341st Training Squadron trains military working dogs and handlers for the Department of Defense, other government agencies and allies. It provides training, logistical, veterinary support and research and development for security efforts worldwide, including dogs used in patrol, drug and explosive detection, and specialized mission functions.
Courtesy photo.
The squadron breeds and raises dogs at the Military Working Dog Center, a “state of the art whelping facility” located at the Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas, according to its website.
RiverTech parent company Akima, based in Herndon, Va., is an enterprise of NANA Regional Corporation Inc., which is owned by 14,300 Iñupiat shareholders with roots in a 38,000-square-mile section of northwest Alaska, much of which is located above the Arctic Circle. Akima employs more than 7,500 people across its various subsidiaries.
In addition to federal contracting, NANA maintains a diversified portfolio of commercial businesses in mining, oil and gas, health care, education, construction and exploration.
