Navy IT Spending Offers Opportunities for Industry.

• Position: Budget Matters

Contractors will have an opportunity to compete for major Navy information technology and professional services contracts in the coming months, according to a federal market analyst with Bloomberg Government.

Although the majority of the Navy's contracting goes toward large platforms, it is the second largest buyer of IT in the federal government, Laura Criste noted during a recent budget briefing for industry.

The top five vendors in the Navy's largest market segments such as aircraft and submarines capture 90 percent of the market, she noted. "It's not super competitive," she said. "Where we are seeing more competition is in the IT and professional services markets where only 20 to 30 percent of contracting obligations go to the top five vendors."

Cybersecurity is a top concern for the Defense Department as adversaries look for weaknesses in Pentagon systems. The Navy's fiscal year 2019 budget request calls for increased spending in this area, from $1.1

billion in 2017 to $1.4 billion in 2019, including classified projects. Annual spending would grow to $1.5 billion by 2022, according to Criste's slideshow presentation.

The overall information technology budget increased from $8.3 billion in 2017 to $9.7 billion in 2018, according to her slides. "Then it's pretty stable all the way out through 2023" in the five-year budget blueprint, she added. "It looks like the Navy feels...