Boeing has received a one-year, $4.3 million contract extension from the U.S. Army to extend the company's engineering support for Multimedia Message Manager (M3), a secure messaging capability. Boeing will continue to provide specialized software operations and maintenance support to military intelligence-gathering customers as part of the extension.

"M3 has remained at the cutting edge of technology, making it the secure messaging tool of choice for the Department of Defense Intelligence Information System and approximately 60 organizations in the Intelligence Community," said Dewey Houck, director of Mission Systems, a division of Boeing Intelligence and Security Systems.

"This award demonstrates defense intelligence customers' confidence in our ability to deliver the necessary technical solutions for their ongoing needs."

M3 provides military and intelligence customers with an immediate solution to information-sharing across intelligence agencies and departments.

It provides a robust, stable capability to create, send and receive messages from a variety of sources, real-time distribution of these messages, expedited delivery of high-priority traffic, and segregation of special message types.

It also gives users a quick and easy retrospective search capability that allows analysis and future planning.

"When sending messages of a sensitive nature, M3 allows for additional levels of access controls, ensuring that there is no possibility of inadvertent disclosure to unauthorized users, which is essential for these agencies," said Houck.

Boeing has been providing evolving M3 solutions for the Intelligence Community since 1990, under several contracts valued at more than $100 million.

The current M3 contract began under the Army in 2009, after transferring from the Defense Intelligence Agency, which had managed the contract since 1990.