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The Defense Department\u2019s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure\u00a0<\/strong>cloud will be designed to host the government\u2019s most sensitive classified data, including critical nuclear weapon design information and other nuclear\u00a0secrets.<\/p>\nThe Pentagon is expected to bid out the\u00a0controversial\u00a0JEDI<\/span>\u00a0cloud contract this week, and\u00a0new contracting documents\u00a0indicate the winning company must be able to obtain the full range of top secret government security clearances, including Department of Energy \u201cQ\u201d and \u201cL\u201d clearances necessary to view restricted nuclear\u00a0data.<\/p>\n In response to questions from\u00a0Nextgov, Defense Department spokeswoman Heather Babb confirmed \u201cJEDI<\/span>\u00a0cloud services will be offered at all classification levels.\u201d Babb said military and defense customers \u201cwill determine which applications and data migrate to the\u00a0cloud.\u201d<\/p>\n Amazon Web Services, considered a front-runner to win the\u00a0JEDI<\/span>contract, is already able to host some Defense Department\u00a0classified data\u00a0in a $600 million cloud it developed several years ago for the\u00a0CIA<\/span>.<\/p>\n JEDI<\/span>, however, represents a massive jump in size and scale. The contract could be worth as much as $10 billion over 10 years, with Defense officials describing it as a \u201cglobal fabric\u201d available to warfighters in almost any environment, from F-35s to war zones. Because government customers could use the cloud for almost anything, it must be built to host almost everything, Steven Aftergood, head of the Federation of American Scientists\u2019 Project on Government Secrecy, told\u00a0Nextgov<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt sounds to me like the government is covering all their bases,\u201d Aftergood said. \u201cEverything we\u2019ve got might be part of this system, therefore you need to be potentially cleared for everything. And \u2018everything\u2019 includes information on weapons systems, operations, intelligence and nuclear\u00a0weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n Aftergood said the Defense Department\u2019s requirement for individual \u201cQ\u201d clearances for personnel at the contractor that wins\u00a0JEDI<\/span>\u00a0suggests the cloud may be able to \u201chost information pertaining to nuclear weapons or classified information pertaining to the deployment and utilization of nuclear\u00a0weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n Q clearances originated in the Atomic Energy Act of 1946. They are typically granted to contractors or scientists involved in the management or maintenance of the nuclear weapons complex and national laboratories. Q clearances would be a rarity among employees at the tech companies bidding on\u00a0JEDI<\/span>, though Aftergood said investigative requirements can be shortened through \u201creciprocity\u201d arrangements if contracted personnel have attained similar clearances. Amazon, Google, Microsoft,\u00a0IBM<\/span>, Oracle and General Dynamics have indicated interest in\u00a0JEDI<\/span>.<\/p>\n The Pentagon has said it plans to award the\u00a0JEDI<\/span>\u00a0contract in September and to begin migrating Pentagon systems early next year.\u00a0Bloomberg, however, has reported that several companies have vowed to protest the contract and potentially take the Pentagon to court over its decision to award\u00a0JEDI<\/span>\u00a0to a single cloud\u00a0provider.<\/p>\n