Leidos [LDOS] said on Monday that it has assumed full responsibility for operating the Navy’s and the Marine Corps’ information technology (IT) networks following its win in February 2020 of potential $7.7 billion Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) Service Management, Integration and Transport (SMIT) contract.

Work under the potential eight-year, six-month contract was delayed due to protests that ultimately were decided in the Navy’s favor in December 2020, with Leidos given permission in February 2021 to move full-speed ahead on the program and begin to take over from incumbent Perspecta. Peraton acquired Perspecta this spring.

Leidos said it negotiated with the Government Program Office to accelerate the transition from nine months to six.

Leidos said that on Aug. 1 it “assumed responsibility for the end-to-end IT operations for the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet and the OCONUS Naval Enterprise Network, as well as support for the Marine Corps Enterprise Network” that in total “provide IT services for more than 650,000 uniformed and civilian professionals who use it daily in more than 1,500 locations across the U.S. and worldwide.”

With NGEN SMIT, Leidos will modernize the Navy’s IT networks to minimize latency and generate currently hidden data to leverage with artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to improve network management. Leidos said the capabilities it brings will also enable faster development, testing and deployment of new IT solutions.