Boeing to Perform Front-Line UAV Support for USMC, Navy
Boeing contractor support personnel like the one pictured above have been involved in front-line support for their ScanEagle UAVs for some time now, and those UAVs have proven useful in campaigns like Fallujah and al-Anbar, operating from forward-deployed land locations and even from onboard high-speed ships.
Unsurprisingly, Boeing recently received a pair of contracts from the US Marine Corps and Navy wirth 25.6 million to continue their work in this area…
Boeing Integrated Defense Systems in St. Louis, MO received an $18.5 million modification to previously awarded contract for support of II MEF(Marine Expeditionary Force) urgent universal need statement for continuation of intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) services in support of Marine Corps forces deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). This effort is in support of I/II MEF urgent universal need statement, approved by the Marine Requirement Oversight Council on July 5, 2006, and the statement of need dated May 16, 2006, requesting continuation of services during the transition of I MEF and II MEF in support of OIF-II.
This is all a fancy way of saying that they need the same sorts of contractor services for the new set of Marines in theater. Work will be performed in theater (80%), at St. Louis, MO (5%) and Bingen, WA (15% – where Boeing partner Insitu is based), and is expected to be completed in March 2007. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, VA issued the contract.
A couple of days later, the Navy chimed in…
July 19/06: The Boeing Co. in St. Louis, MO received a $7.1 million not-to-exceed modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract to provide persistent intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle services in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Global War on Terror. Work will be performed in St. Louis, MO and is expected to be complete in February 2007. The Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD issued the contract.