Boeing [BA] said yesterday it received an $18.7 million Army contract to procure long- lead items and related tooling and test equipment to support the initial delivery of early Spin Out systems to the first infantry brigade combat team.
“This contract award is a vote of confidence in the technological maturity of these Spin Out capabilities,” Gregg Martin, Boeing vice president and Future Combat Systems program manager, said in a statement. “These Spin Outs represent a system of systems, capabilities-based approach for delivering incremental and integrated brigade capabilities, including increased intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance across the full spectrum of operations.”
With the award of the May 14 contract, Boeing and partner SAIC [SAI] will now provide the funds to equipment producers to procure long-lead items: Honeywell’s [HON] Class I Block 0 Unmanned Aerial Systems, iRobot‘s [IRBT] Small Unmanned Ground Vehicles, Textron‘s [TXT] Tactical and Urban Unattended Ground Sensors, and Network Integration Kits that are part of the incremental Spin Out effort.
These early capabilities are to be fielded to the first infantry brigade combat team in 2011.
The systems will enable soldiers at the squad, platoon and company level to exchange images and data across a shared mobile network for the first time.
The early Spin Out capabilities are currently being evaluated and tested by the Army Evaluation Task Force at Fort Bliss, Texas, and White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
The activities will culminate in a Limited User Test this fall, all serving to reduce program risk by involving the end user–the soldier–in the development process earlier than usual.