With the award of nearly $13 billion in contracts to three companies, the Army’s Manpack radio moves into the full-rate production phase of the program several weeks ahead of schedule.
At least 5,326 AN/PRC-155 Manpack radios are fielded from a previous low-rate, initial-production (LRIP) contract held by General Dynamics C4 Systems [GD]. The recent $12.7 billion award for full rate production is shared by GD, Harris Corp. [HRS], and Rockwell Collins [COL].
The ID/IQ contracts are for new, next-generation Manpack radios built according to radio requirements identified in an Army RFP issued to industry in August 2015. Lt. Gen. Michael Williamson, principal military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, technology and logistics, said on Wednesday the goal of the next phase of the program was to shrink and lighten the radios to be more portable and to extend their range.
The IDIQ contracts consist of a five-year base and an additional five-year option with a maximum value of $12.7 billion. The Army plans to buy up to 60,296 radios over the life of the program.
“These radios have been successfully used to connect Soldiers performing mounted and dismounted operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and other areas,” a spokesman for the Army’s command, control and communications-tactical program office (PEO C3T) said of the Manpack radios already fielded under GD’s low-rate production contract. “With these contract awards, the full-rate production phase of the program kicks into high-gear.”
Procurement will mirror the structure set up under the Rifleman Radio contract shared between Thales and Harris in that companies whose radios survive testing will be on contract to deliver radios for five years. The Army has the option to extend the contract for another five years after that. Those companies will compete for further delivery orders under the initial IDIQ contract.
Each manufacturer will deliver at least 30 radios within the next two months that will be used for qualification testing this summer, according to the program office. A series of customer and operational testing will follow. Operational testing of the Manpack radio is expected to take place in early 2017.
Companies that complete the testing period will go on to deliver another 60 radios by the end of fiscal year 2016, which runs through Oct. 1. Full-rate production is scheduled to begin about a year later.
The Army included about $230 million for the Manpack program in its budget submission for fiscal year 2017 to cover procurement of nearly 1,500 radios and the cost of continued engineering and engineering work. Of that, $114.9 million will go to purchasing 1,470 radios.
The selection follows the U.S. government’s decision to open the HMS Manpack competition to technically compliant, commercially developed radios.
“The HMS Manpack award is a major step forward for the U.S. Army’s tactical radio modernization program, and brings essential battlefield networking and communications capabilities to the warfighter,” said Brendan O’Connell, president of tactical communications for Harris Communication Systems. “The award also allows Harris to now compete at all echelons of the Army tactical communications architecture—from dismounted handheld radios through vehicular-based radio platforms.”
Harris is currently building Rifleman Radios under a separate IDIQ contract shared with Thales, which did not pursue Manpack. The two companies are under contract to produce about 150,000 rifleman radios. JTRS, which also includes airborne and vehicle-mounted radios, is designed to tap commercial technologies for military use and will be re-competed every five years in an effort to find the most capability and the best price for the government.
Dennis Moran, vice president of government business development, told Defense Daily that award solidifies the tactical radio market for competitions in the future. That provides the Army with a competitive pool of manufacturers that offer a family of communication devices with proven capabilities and interoperability, he said.
“We’ve always thought that if we had a family of tactical radios–handheld, manpack, vehicular, airborne–that were built on similar hardware and software architectures running similar waveforms …would advantage us both for speed to market and also in the pricing of those products that we offer to the government. That has turned out to be true,” Moran said.