RG-33 variant
(click to view full)

Field Service Reps order, Updated MRAP program totals & percentages. (March 12/10)

The USA’s Mine-Resistant, Ambush Protected (MRAP) program has been a long road for BAE Systems. In the wake of the US Army’s belated realization that mine protection was critical for vehicles in theater, BAE’s designs, long-standing experience in the field, and production capacity had made them an early favorite. Early results were a deeply humbling experience for the firm, but a combination of acquisitions, persistence, and product development combined to recover 2nd place status by the time MRAP orders ceased.

This in-depth, updated DID feature shines a spotlight on BAE Systems’ family of MRAP offerings, order record, and associated contracts. The MRAP program appears to have reached its vehicle limit, but some BAE vehicles are getting a major suspension upgrade and maintenance contracts continue…

• BAE MRAP: The Vehicles
• BAE MRAP: The Current Tally [updated]
• BAE MRAP: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Appendix A: MRAP Competition Half-Time Update, June 28/07
  
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• Will Northrop Grumman’s new compensation focus on profitability rather than growing market share kill KC-X tanker bid?

• US Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn asks for an extension to finalize a 3rd multiyear Super Hornet/ EA-18G deal.

• USAF, Northrop Grumman to redesign B-2 stealth bomber’s aft deck to lessen cracking .

• G2 Solutions: US Army tactical UAS competitions could total $2.6 billion between 2013 and 2025.

• Bill Sweetman on F-35 program: “Remember this distinction: The Donner Party was on track. They were not on schedule.”

• Pentagon moves F-35 JSF fighter full-rate production to November 2015, withholds $614 million from Lockheed Martin as promised earlier, restructures contract.

• Lockheed Martin-led team fabricates the world’s largest (16.4 foot diameter) heat shield structure, under budget and early.

• USA’s Ground Combat Vehicle next-generation armor: BAE (platform) teams with Northrop Grumman (C4ISR).

• Australia’s naval helicopter competition is officially on: MH-60R vs. NH90-NFH.

• UK Takeover Panel gives Babcock a 1 month deadline to complete GBP 1.25 billion purchase of UK defense firm VT Group.

• British medics get blood warming equipment to treat wounded in Afghanistan.

• BAE Systems will provide mission computer systems for the Indian Navy’s P-8I maritime patrol aircraft.

• US DoD to require vendors to meet tougher cybersecurity standards.

• Cyberattack simulation highlights infrastructure, leadership gaps. What keeps cybersecurity specialists up at night?

• Pentagon cites over 100 cyber breaches at US defense contractors and agencies.

• Pwnage: US Army calls in its best VBS2 gamers for a conference.

• Lockheed Martin may battle Babcock to acquire British defense firm VT Group.

• UK begins using new “Python” for mine clearance in Afghanistan, showcases CDE research projects.

• F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s development schedule to be delayed a year.

• US Army is developing a signal-processing interface to combine outputs from different radar systems.

• Navistar’s $750+ million contract to provide 1,050 more MaxxPro Dash vehicles is expected to restore 400 jobs to the company’s West Point, MS facility, following multiple layoffs in 2009 that had cut staffing to 120.

Telesurgery using MC4
(click to view larger)

Using paper medical records in military hospitals and mobile medical units can be impractical at best. Doctors and nurses have to flip through paper-based charts to review patient histories in time-pressure situations that often require immediate action.

Using the US Army’s electronic medical record system called Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care (MC4), US military doctors, medics, and nurses record and retrieve medical information from laptops. Rather than searching through reams of paper records, Army medical personnel can quickly punch in a patient’s name and have all of the relevant medical history at their fingertips.

Recently, an Army surgeon in Iraq has been able to use the MC4 system not just for record keeping but to perform surgery, which involved transmitting images back to specialists in the United States who assisted the surgeon.

To support the MC4 system, General Dynamics Information Technology recently received a 5-year task order, worth up to $154 million if all options are exercised…

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Delicate operation
(click to view full)

When you think of military healthcare, you might picture MASH doctors performing surgery on wounded soldiers. Or you might picture a US soldier injured by an IED being rehabilitated in a hospital state-side.

You probably don’t think of computers, networks and Web sites. But modern healthcare, whether military or civilian, depends on information technology for all of the advanced medical technology to work together seamlessly.

To procure military IT, the US Department of Defense developed a contract vehicle called the Defense Medical Information Systems/Systems Integration, Design, Development, Operations and Maintenance Services (D/SIDDOMS 3) contract. Just rolls off the tongue, don’t it.

While hardly Shakespeare, the contract vehicle enables US military services and the US Department of Veterans Affairs to buy medical IT equipment and services through task orders from a group of eager contractors operating under an $8 billion contract ceiling…

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Patient Monitoring System

GE Healthcare in Wauwatosa, WI won a maximum $43.2 million fixed price with economic price adjustment contract to supply patient monitoring systems to the US military as well as federal civilian agencies.

GE Healthcare received its 1st contracts to supply patient monitoring systems to the US military in March 2009, after 2 years of negotiations between the company and the US Defense Supply Center Philadelphia. GE received two 10-year contracts (1 year base with 9 one-year options), worth a maximum of $63 million annually, to supply patient monitoring systems as well as supporting communications equipment and IT systems…

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Hyperbaric Medicine Chamber
at Brooks City-Base, TX
(click to view full)

The US Air Force Research Laboratory awarded 6 contracts worth a combined $558 million for administrative and functional support, medical and biomedical research assistance, clinical and clinical hyperbaric medicine services, environmental bio-terrorism support, technology evaluation and research studies support services at Brooks City-Base, TX and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH.

Brooks City-Base is home to the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM), [pdf] which is a center for aerospace medical learning, consultation, aerospace medical investigations and aircrew health assessments. The school operates a hyperbaric medicine chamber, which exposes patients to large amounts of oxygen to enrich blood and increase the body’s ability to heal.

The winners of the medical research support contracts are:

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The Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Northwest awarded indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity multiple award design-build construction contracts to 6 small business qualifiers for US military construction projects in the Northwest United States. The maximum dollar value, including the base period and 4 option years, for all 6 contracts is $200 million.

The contractors will carry out new construction, renovation, alteration, demolition, and repair work through design-build or design-bid-build projects. The work will be performed at a broad range of sites, including commercial and institutional facilities, administrative and industrial facilities, housing facilities, child care centers, lodges, recreational/fitness centers, retail complexes, warehouses, offices, community centers, medical facilities, operational airfield facilities, hangars, armories, fire stations, auditoriums, religious facilities and manufacturing facilities.

The winners of the NAVFAC Northwest contracts are:

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Plans for Walter Reed
National Military Medical Ctr
(click to view full)

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) in Fairfax, VA won a $322.1 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide initial outfitting and transition services at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD and the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital (FBCH) at Fort Belvoir, VA; both are new military facilities being built in the greater US National Capital Region (NCR).

GDIT will assist with hospital transitioning and activation, and install materiel, furniture, medical, non-medical, and IT equipment. The company will also provide operational and maintenance training on the equipment and will move and reuse existing equipment and materiel.

The new medical facilities are mandated by the Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) law, enacted to implement the 2005 BRAC Commission’s recommendations, to accommodate the closing of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC.

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Flooding at Kessler AFB
from Hurricane Katrina
(click to view larger)

W.G. Yates & Sons Construction in Biloxi, MS won a $37.3 million firm-fixed-price contract for construction of a community hospital at Keesler Air Force Base, also in Biloxi.

Kessler AFB, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is the home of the 81st Training Wing – the electronics, computer and weather training center of the US Air Force. It is also home of Keesler Medical Center, the 2nd largest USAF medical facility.

Under the contract, W.G. Yates will build a 4-story, 141,000-square-foot medical facility…

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