Well, that didn’t take long. While protoypes of the Sphinx halfshell have been shown to operators in rooms behind fences for a couple of years, the rest of the tactical world just got their first look at the uberuniform this summer. There’s a whole lot of smart in those clothes and we’re sure the suits at Arc’teryx were sweating in their Molsons as the set’s $1300 price tag came into focus. But, it seems their performance-at-any-cost approach payed off today when SOCOM put out a solicitation for 127 sets of the new Arc’teryx Sphinx top and bottoms in MultiCam. MSRP on those duds is $550 for the top and $750 for the pants. Head on over to FedBiz to get the lowdown and get in on the action.
Tag "Contracts"
Army Lt. Col. Robert W. Myles Jr. Product Manager Soldier Survivability talks about the latest technology in protective vests in May, 2009. Tom Brown/Army Times Staff
The US Army is soliciting bids for 57,000 armor plate carriers in various sizes. Here are some bullets from the RFQ that came down late last week.
- total contract delivery date of 2/28/2010
- provide soft ballistic protection equal to the current IOTV
- be compatible with ESAPI, XSAPI, ESBI requirements
- size medium with soft ballistic panels must weigh less than 9 pounds
- 30 second don/doff time
- come in Army UCP
- have MOLLE/PALS webbing on front and back
- have a drag strap
Aimpoint wants everyone to know about the July 2009 US Army contract award for 565,783 M68 Close Combat Optics. The contract is for $171 million worth of Aimpoint CompM4s sights. End-to-end, that’s 21.5 miles of sights. So, if they could float, you could form a chain of CompM4s’ from France to England.
The 2 minute-of-angle, unmagnified, red-dot sight runs for up to 8 years on a AA battery and has 7 night vision compatible settings and 9 daylight settings. This award will push the number of Aimpoints in use by the US military to more than 1.25 million.
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Looks like someone couldn’t make up their mind on this one. The US Army Contracting Agency just bought 500 Surefire Helmet Lights and 500 Energizer Hard Case Tactical Helmet lights from W. S. Darley & Co.
What’s interesting here is that the ACA ignored the helmet light that was ‘approved’ per the Army Family of Flashlights List (AFFL) and split probably $83k between a proven battlefield performer and a promising, but relatively unproven product. Hedging bets or fielding one of each to a battalion for some T&E?
This begs the question, how relevant is the AFFL?
via FedBizOpps
Even if it isn’t called the Special Operations Equipment Stimulus Package, it’s going to make a lot of people in the gear industry happy. Prime vendor ADS was just awarded a contract for $5.7 billion to supply equipment and training to the DoD, military installations and OGA, right down to the municipal level.
The contract was awarded by the Defense Supply Center, Philadelphia, to support the Special Operations Equipment Tailored Logistics Support (TLS) program. This means that ADS will be supplying kits and training for everything from body armor and uniform items to dive gear and less-than-lethal weapons and training.
ADS is going to add 60 warm bodies to meet the demands of the contract. They say they’ll be filling supply chain, accounting, business development and sales executive positions.
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Here’s a headspinner: After the DOD awarded an initial contract for 120,000 new XSAPI plates, the brass told congress in a hearing yesterday that they plan on shelving the plates because the extra 1/2 pound adds too much weight to an already heavy IBA.
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A few months back USSOCOM and Natick started looking for an improved MICH helmet. Well, they turned the lights out on that solicitation in early January.
USSOCOM wanted to provide operators with two new versions of the MICH shell- “MICH-Standard” would have been lighter and more configurable than the current version with the same ballistic protection level, and “MICH Enhanced” that would have added improved protection against 7.62 x 39mm PS ball over the MICH-Standard.
UPDATE: Turns out that Natick pulled the solicitaion so they could talk to vendors at Shot Show without running afoul of some acquisition laws…
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