Cobham this week said it has been awarded a five-year, portential $110 million Indefinite Delivery, Definite Quantity (IDDQ) contract from the Army to provide Microclimate Cooling Systems to the Air Warrior program office.
Cobham’s initial task order is valued at approximately $6.5 million under the contract issued by the Army Aviation and Missile Command.
The work under this contract will be performed by Cobham Life Support, a strategic business unit within Cobham’s Mission Systems Division at Orchard Park, N.Y.
Kelly Coffield, Cobham Life Support president, said: “We are pleased with the U.S. Army’s continued commitment to increasing the performance of the warfighter through the use of microclimate cooling. These systems significantly contribute to keeping our forces mission ready and combat effective.”
Cobham’s Microclimate Cooling System (MCS), a compact, lightweight, self-contained vapor compression cycle cooling system, is designed for operation on helicopters and ground vehicles and can accommodate single or multiple users. More than 15,000 systems are employed by U.S. military helicopters–including the AH-64 Apache, the CH-47 Chinook and the UH-60 Black Hawk–and U.S. military ground vehicles including the Bradley, Stryker and M1A1 tanks, where high temperatures can limit human operational effectiveness.
The MCS helps prevent heat stress by maintaining safe core body temperatures. It extends the mission duration of soldiers, Marines, and airmen who are deployed to extreme climates, or who are thermally burdened by required body armor or other protective clothing.