Army

The U.S. Army Special Programs Office has awarded TASC Inc. a $44.7 million contract to provide systems engineering and technical assistance to decision-makers and warfighters on the ground over the next five years. TASC will support intelligence and surveillance research and development efforts, Quick Reaction Capability initiatives, and technical expertise in the material acquisition process, planning, and programming system support.

ViaSat has announced a $477 million U.S. Army contract to supply the next generation of high-speed, high-capacity, low-latency Blue Force Tracking equipment as part of the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below Program.

The Army needs to fix its acquisition process and move good ideas to top leaders according to Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, USA, vice chief of staff, U.S. Army. Gen. Chiarelli delivered the morning address of LandWarNet today via teleconference, stating that he wants the ideas people have to make things better. He also emphasized repeatedly the need to change acquisitions to keep up with technology changes and the enemy.

ViaSat, Inc., Carlsbad, California, was recently awarded a $37.6 million firm-fixed-price contract to provide blue force tracking 2 (BFT-2) for Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2).  BFT-2 is the next generation of the BFT transceiver/network. With BFT-2, FBCB2 will have the capability to upgrade position reports in seconds rather than minutes, thousands of platforms will share a single satellites channel, resulting in reduced recurring cost, and icons on a computer screen will more accurately represent a vehicle's location. U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command Acquisition Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

Aegis Technologies Group, Inc., Huntsville, Alabama, was recently awarded an $8 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to develop a reconfigurable arbitrary-waveform scene projector under the "OSD, Test Resource Management Center Multispectral Test" program.  U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command Contracting Center, Aberdeen Installation Contracting Division, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

AAI Corp., Hunt Valley, Md., has been awarded a $37.9 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract by the U.S. Army, which increases funds and exercises options on the Shadow tactical unmanned aircraft system performance-based logistics contract.

L-3 Communications Westwood Corp., Tulsa, Oklahoma, was recently awarded a $175 million contract modification by the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command to provide 30 and 60 kilowatt tactical quiet generator sets to provide the necessary and critical power for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment and combat support systems.  The modification was issued to increase the contract ceiling amount to $376 million with an estimated completion date of March 1, 2011.