Small business qualifier Donovan Commercial Industries, Inc. in Nortonville, KY is being awarded an $8.9 million firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract for the Low Hazard Flexible Linear Shaped Charge. It’s a form of explosive cutting tape, which is typically used to produce precise cuts in metal and other substances. Think of it as an instant and very powerful plasma torch, whose design makes it safer to carry and much faster to use. The V-shaped charge enclosed in foam comes in 5 lengths and various grains per foot of explosive, in order to provide precise calibration to the difficulty of the job. This design also produces less shrapnel, which makes it a lot safer than existing explosives used for this purpose by the military, and by civilian construction firms building bridges and other large structures.
Work will be performed in Nortonville, KY and is expected to be complete by June 2013. Contract funds in the amount of $67,523 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured, with proposals solicited via Federal Business Opportunities, with 1 offer received by the energetics specialists at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division in Crane, IN (N00164-08-D-JM11).
Donovan’s product is available to qualified civilian firms, and is picking up market share on that front as well. The executive we spoke to did express a desire for a qualified individual who could help them with the growing volume of media and other PR-related inquiries they’re receiving. Nortonville is about 75 miles NNW of Nashville, or 50 miles west of Bowling Green.
Government contracting is a difficult field for businesses to enter. This is especially true if they lack the prior experience that can help them find and filter potential contracts, understand the cycle times and effort involved, secure the cash flow required as table stakes, and bid successfully. Within that arena of public sector contracting, defense is its own field, with its own characteristics and sets of relationships.
These obstacles have traditionally made it difficult for small and medium sized businesses that focus on the civilian sector to become involved in defense contracts. This is so despite federal targets for small business contracts, programs for service-disabled veterans, and other inducements. Those programs create opportunities, but don’t offer the services that help businesses bridge the gap.
The US Defense Logistics Agency’s Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) program relies on matching state funds, but states who invest in it can create a useful resource that helps bridge the gap in their states. One state that has invested in PTAC is Utah, under Gov. John Huntsman…
New Finmeccanica acquisition DRS EW & Network Systems, Inc. in Buffalo, NY received a $6.9 million fixed-price, time and materials contract for a Gigabit Ethernet Data Multiplex System (GEDMS) for DDG 53, a Flight 1 Arleigh Burke Class AEGIS destroyer commonly known as USS John Paul Jones. Some may remember the ship’s namesake as the Scot who became the father of the American navy, and uttered the famous battle phrase “I have not yet begun to fight!”
The GEDMS is a network for Arleigh Burke Class destroyers that acts as a ship wide data transfer network for a ship’s machinery, steering, navigation, combat, alarm and indicating, and damage control systems. It was designed to replace the miles of point-to-point cabling, signal converters, junction boxes, and switchboards associated with conventional ship’s cabling. DRS will also provide a land-based GEDMS trainer, EDMS hardware, and installation and checkout repair for the DDG53 GEDMS, and the contract includes an option which would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $7 million.
USS John Paul Jones
Work will be performed in Johnstown, PA (80%) and Buffalo, NY (20%), and is expected to be complete by December 2009. This contract was procured on a limited competition basis, with 2 proposals solicited and 2 offers received via the Federal Business Opportunities website. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division in Dahlgren, VA manages the contract (N00178-08-C-2001).
Vangent, Inc. of Arlington, VA received a firm fixed price contract for $13.6 million under the Royal Saudi Air Force Web Based E-Learning System Modernization Program. At this time $11 million has been committed. The 350th Electronic Systems Group at Hanscom AFB, MA issued the contract (FA8706-08-C-0009).
The systems integrator will acquire, install, configure, test and deliver E-Learning systems, supporting equipment and associated IT Infrastructure, including the conversion, configuration, installation and test of approximately 1,405 computer-based training modules, converted to web-based delivery. They will also modernize an associated conference room and classrooms at the RSAF’s School of Command, Control, and Communication (C3), and upgrade the network.
April 7/09:DRC announces a related $1.6 million sub-contract from Vangent.
