13 Jan 05. DRS Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: DRS – News) announced a number of contracts this week (See CONTRACT NEWS IN BRIEF). Yesterday it received new orders valued at approximately $36m to provide rugged Applique Computer Systems for the U.S. Army’s Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade and Below (FBCB2) program. Installed on M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tanks and M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, these systems will support both U.S. Army and Marine Corps operations. The company is now sole source for this system, having shared it with L-3 until 2003.
The new orders were awarded to DRS by the U.S. Army’s Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. The design and manufacture of processor and keyboard units, as well as rugged removable hard disk drives, will be accomplished by the company’s DRS Tactical Systems unit in Palm Bay, Florida. Delivery of more than 3,600 Applique systems will begin in June 2005 and continue throughout the year. The orders are associated with a five-year, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract awarded to the company in June 2004.
“These awards support our position as a market leader in rugged computer systems for the Army’s dominance of the 21st century battlespace,” said Steven T. Schorer, president of DRS’s C4I Group. “The FBCB2 systems have proven to be crucial assets for our forces in Iraq as part of the Army’s network-centric communications infrastructure by providing improved interoperability and networked battlefield command information. The systems reflect DRS’s strong track record for innovative design and highly reliable performance, as well as our reputation for product quality and timely delivery. Our success in supporting these next-generation, high-visibility, battlefield command information systems is the direct result of our commitment to provide best value systems and services.”
On January 11th the company also announced the award of a new contract from AMS Ltd. to provide display consoles to support the Single Role Mine Hunter (SRMH) Combat System Upgrade program for the British Royal Navy. Building on DRS’s earlier success as a key integrator of the OPUS 2 command consoles for the Royal Navy’s Hunt Class Command System Upgrade, this program will backfit the same capability into the Royal Navy’s SRMH, its other major class of Mine Countermeasures (MCM) vessels.
The contract was awarded to DRS by AMS in the UK. For this $7.5m award, DRS will design, integrate and deliver more than 30 consoles, both upgraded and new equipment, based on the proven electronic subsystems used in DRS’s OPUS 2 display systems. The SRMH integrated display consoles will run AMS’s world-class NAUTIS combat management system application, providing commonality with other MCM ships. Work for this contract will be accomplished by the company’s DRS Tactical Systems Ltd. unit in Farnham, Surrey, U.K. Product deliveries are expected to commence this May and continue through December 2007. This is a particualry significant award as DRS developed this console technology from scratch and has now become a market leader in this technology.
“This new order reaffirms DRS’s position as a leading international supplier of high-quality, multi-function, integrated display systems for advanced naval applications,” said Schorer, “Based on our customer’s commitment to the long-term sustainability of the OPUS 2 display technology and its successful implementation, we are able to offer the same highly compliant, modular solution that leverages commonality across additional classes of Royal Navy MCM vessels.”
On January 12th DRS won a $9.2m production contract under the Javelin Anti-Tank Weapon System program. Utilized by U.S. Army and Marine Corps combat units, Javelin is the world’s premier man-portable, fire-and-forget, medium-range, anti-tank weapon system. It also is approved through the U.S. Army’s FMS program for international procurement.
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