Harris Corp., a Melbourne, Fla.-based defense contractor, won an $80.3 million multiyear contract with the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department to develop the services-oriented architecture platform for the VA and the Defense Department's proposed joint electronic health-record system, according to a Harris news release.

Harris was among 15 prime contractors selected in 2011 for participation in what is expected to be a multivendor, multibillion-dollar replacement project for three electronic-record systems: the VA's home-grown VistA EHR, a VistA clone for the Military Health System called the Composite Health Care System and the military's troubled AHLTA EHR.

Combined, the VA and Defense Department healthcare systems operate more than 220 hospitals and more than 1,100 clinics.

Combined, the VA and Defense Department healthcare systems operate more than 220 hospitals and more than 1,100 clinics.

The services-oriented architecture is to provide a "a common federated middleware as a secure, virtualized, intelligent infrastructure allowing best-of-breed 'cloud-first' services for all members of the DoD and VA healthcare systems," the Harris release said. The company also is to provide a "joint execution strategy for the two agencies."

Harris is scheduled to have a demonstration site up and running by this coming September, with a full release by early 2014, according to the release.