Leidos was created in 2016, by the merger of Lockheed’s Information Systems division, and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), forming the largest IT contractor for the federal government. Like most major federal contractors, it is headquartered near Washington DC (in Reston, Virginia), though its offices in San Diego, across the highway from General Atomics in Torrey Pines, are significant, as this is where SAIC, one of the most diversified and influential federal solutions companies, has its origins. SAIC was spun out of General Atomics in the 1960s, to research the effects and dispersal of radiation, and expanded into a company developing strategic technical solutions for the defense department and intelligence community.