LGS to Help CenturyLink Update DoD’s Research, Engineering Network; Tim Meehan, Kevin Kelly Comment

LGS Innovations will work as a subcontractor for on an initiative to upgrade the Defense Department’s Research and Engineering Network under a potential 10-year, $750 million contract awarded to CenturyLink in 2012 by the Defense Information Systems Agency.

LGS’ task is to develop high-performance network for five supercomputing locations with speeds of 40 gigabits per second for DREN, CenturyLink said Monday.

Tim Meehan, CenturyLink senior vice president and general manager, said the network is intended to help federal researchers, scientists and engineers develop new networking technologies for national security missions.

Kevin Kelly, LGS CEO, said the DREN network is one tool the military uses for efforts to “stay on the forefront of research and development.”

DREN works to provide scientists at agencies and research sites access to five DoD supercomputing facilities.

CenturyLink and LGS will first deploy the 40-gigabit service in the U.S. Navy DoD Supercomputing Resource Center at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.