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Hesco, explained
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It’s a surprisingly simple concept. Why ship walls, concrete, or even concrete barriers, when you can ship collapsible forms that can quickly be filled with sand or dirt by any untrained person? Why use sandbags with their inherent gaps and manual fills when the collapsible forms provide full cover, and can be filled in a fraction of the time using engineering vehicles? Uses abound, from gabions and flood control, to stopping bullets and even rockets. When you’re done, just empty the forms, fold them flat again, and ship them out. Systems of this type have been used by the military since the 1991 war in Kuwait. Someone in the US military obviously understood their extreme usefulness to current “seize and hold” operations, because…

Hesco Bastion Ltd. of Leeds, UK (there is also a Hesco Bastion USA in Hammond, La.) received a $717 million fixed price with economic price adjustment, bridge contract for Hesco Bastion Concertainer Defense Walls. Concertainer® is a prefabricated, multi-cellular system, made of Galfan coated steel Weldmesh and lined with non-woven polypropylene geotextile. It is delivered flat-packed on standard timber skids or pallets. Units can be extended and joined, then filled.

The Hesco forms will be used the US Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps., and the contract is for an odd period: 90 days, with two 90-day options. The date of performance completion is Dec 17/08. The contracting activity is Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA (SPM500-04-D-0239).