$6.3M for Security Contractors at Al-Asad Air Base, Iraq
SOC-SMG Inc. of Minden, NV won a $6.3 million firm-fixed-price contract for Internal Security Operations at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq. Al Asad is located approximately 180 km W of Baghdad and 12 km SW of the Euphrates River, and has just seen the arrival of Marine Air Squadron VMA-223 “Bulldogs” and their AV-8B Harrier II jets.
As for SOC-SMG Inc, the company is a security contractor whose personnel generally have U.S. Special Operations backgrounds, and their web site notes their status as a 5-Star rated security company in the Iraqi theater. Their primary mission to this point has involved the challenging task of providing security support to US Defense Contractors who recover and dispose of Captured Enemy Ammunition (CEA) from the Hussein regime’s numerous and large stores within Iraq. On March 3/05, SOC-SMG employees Jimmy A. Riddle and Brian J. Wagoner were killed in action by a roadside bomb that detonated while they were escorting a convoy of Tetra Tech FW, Inc. employees to an ammunition storage plant near Al Ashraf, Iraq.
The internal security contract for al-Asad will end on March 31, 2006.
Meanwhile, Marines from Marine Wing Support Squadron 271 recently put the finishing touches on a project to enhance the security of airbase by expanding the perimeter fence. The fence line was pushed out to extend security, providing a better vantage point for security towers. The squadron’s drafters and surveyors scoped out the area and drew up the plan, which included three miles of fence, barbed wire and a bridge to cross the wadi between the base and the towering mesa.
There were an unknown number of bids solicited via the World Wide Web on July 21, 2005, and 30 bids were received. The Joint Contracting Command, Iraq issued the contract (W27P4A-05-C-0011).
