15 Sep 05. DRS Technologies, Inc. announced today that it has received $15m in new contracts to provide rugged Appliqué Computer Systems and peripheral equipment for the U.S. Army’s Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade and Below (FBCB2) program. These systems will support U.S. Army and Marine Corps units engaged in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
Installed on M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tanks and M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles,
these systems include the Army’s Blue Force Tracking requirements for beyond line-ofsight reporting and tracking, and will provide significant improvements in vertical and horizontal information integration for incorporation into the military’s overall battlefield visualization efforts.
The FBCB2 program is focused on developing a digital battle command information system designed to provide commanders, leaders and soldiers, from brigade to individual soldier and across all the battlefield functional areas, with improved information for command and control and enhanced situational awareness. The system supports the Army’s overall battlefield visualization efforts and provides a seamless flow of battle command information based on its interoperability with external command and control and sensor systems.
The new orders were received by DRS from the U.S. Army’s Communication-
Electronics Life Cycle Management Command (CELCMC) in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.
For these orders, the company’s DRS Tactical Systems unit in Palm Bay, Florida, will provide rugged Appliqué Computer Systems, including processor, display and keyboard units, as well as rugged solid-state hard disk drives and mission data loaders. Delivery of more than 1,150 Appliqué systems has begun and will continue through March 2006.
“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,” said Steven T. Schorer,