San Diego Defense Contractor Raided in Fraud Probe

Military investigators raided the offices of defense contractor Science Applications International Corp. in San Diego on Tuesday to investigate alleged fraud in the Army’s Comanche helicopter program.

More than two dozen agents of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, an arm of the U.S. Defense Department, and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations entered the SAIC complex at about 10 a.m. Tuesday and carted away dozens of boxes of documents.

SAIC is developing liquid crystal displays used in the control panels of the helicopter, a scout aircraft that is under development. SAIC is one of the nation’s biggest defense research firms with more individual contracts, 4,000, than any other U.S. defense contractor. The employee-owned company reported more than $1 billion in revenue last year.

In a statement, SAIC said it would not comment on the “as yet-unknown allegations” and that it was “fully cooperating in this investigation.”