Tleidos-logohe Pentagon today awarded its years-in-the-making multibillion contract to upgrade its electronic health records system, to defense IT firm Leidos, which partnered with electronic health record vendor Cerner and Accenture Federal.

The Defense Healthcare Management Systems Modernization contract’s base value is $4.3 billion over 10 years, with an expected 18-year lifecycle value of $9 billion, and will put Leidos in charge of building a next-generation health records system responsible for DOD’s 9.6 million beneficiaries.