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Army Seeking Advanced Combat Helmet Maxillofacial System

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

The US Army dropped a presolicitation over the holiday break for an “Advanced Combat Helmet Maxillofacial System.” According to the FBO posting it is a set aside for small business and must not change the standard ACH:

“Product Manager Soldier Protective Equipment (PM SPE) is looking for a commercially available product that can provide ballistic, blast and blunt impact protection in the maxillofacial region to increase soldier survivability. The system must be able to integrated on the current Advanced Combat Helmet and provide modularity which allows for commanders in the field to either wear the face shield or ballistic mandible separately or as an integrated system. The maxillofacial system shall not change the current form, fit, function of the helmet and maintain the current helmet sizing profile.”

Sounds like it might just be written for MTek Weapon Systems’ G-Series Faceshields. Their FAST G3A has been purchased in limited numbers by the Rapid Equipping Force and used by cupola gunners in combat.

The Army intends to procure only one type of system with an initial quantity of one hundred and sixty (160) systems will be procured with options for an additional two thousand (2,000) systems. The actual RFP will come out on 13 January and offerors will have until 14 February to reply.

Tags: MTek Weapon Systems
Posted in Armor, Contracts, Helmets | 16 Comments »

Skedco Comes Off The Debarred List

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

Skedco is no longer on the Excluded Parties List System and is no longer debarred from doing business with the US Government. No further details are available.

www.skedco.com

Tags: Skedco
Posted in Contracts, Industry, Medical | 10 Comments »

Jonathon Long Talks Federal Prison Industries

Friday, December 30th, 2011

My friend Jonathon Long has a blog that frequently discusses government contract and procurement issues. This time he takes on the issue of set asides for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and their business (yes business), UNICOR that is a protected source of procurement for many products used by military personnel including uniforms and helmets. We discussed this issue over the summer. It is our position that incarceration of those convicted of crimes is a burden that must be borne by society through its government administered institutions. The moment incarceration becomes a profit generating enterprise it becomes vulnerable to corruption. UNICOR uses prison labor to produce a wide variety of products. They pay prisoners pennies for their work. Oftentimes, UNICOR products cost more than their commercial counterparts. You do the math. What’s more, PPE produced by UNICOR has failed in the past. Set asides, that guarantee contracts to UNICOR should stop. If they want the business, they should competitively bid like everyone else and be required to pay a minimum wage for their laborers.

Read his blog post here jonathandouglaslong.wordpress.com.

Tags: Jonathon Long
Posted in Contracts, Industry | 16 Comments »

Army Camouflage Improvement Effort Down Select Delay – The Consequences

Monday, December 19th, 2011

Unintended or not, the Army’s most recent delay in announcing the down select is going to hurt those firms currently in the competitive range for the Army Camouflage Improvement Effort. The program has slipped several times since its inception but this latest delay, with announcement coming “during the second week of JAN 2012” is the most troubling.

Unfortunately, this new deadline butts right up against the annual Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade Show, 17-20 January in Las Vegas. SHOT Show is THE trade show of the year for those in the camo business, regardless of hunting or tactical and many of the candidate families of patterns will do well in both markets.

This is the first time we can think of in the Soldier Systems industry that a company is penalized for being a possible contract winner. These companies can’t conduct any marketing activities or even share their designs with potential customers for fear of influencing the source selection authority.

With a Government announcement as late as the 13th of January, companies are already enroute to Las Vegas. There is no way that they could print new signage or marketing materials in time to use them at SHOT. What’s more, with the 10 day protest window bracketing both SHOT Show and Outdoor Retailer, a formal announcement by a company that they are a finalist could very well, still be premature.

Conversely, companies that have already been informed that they are not in the competitive range can on about their business and market their patterns without any encumbrances. They are probably all jumping for joy at the Army’s decision.

We don’t believe that this decision was made with the intention of making things difficult for industry. But, it does. We urge the Army to make its announcement soon so that industry can do the things it needs to do, to sell its wares. That is what a good partner would do.

Posted in Camo, Contracts, Industry | 28 Comments »

Official Update on US Army Camouflage Improvement Effort

Friday, December 16th, 2011

We just received this statement from Army PEO Soldier Spokesperson Debra Dawson:

“The Phase IV Camouflage Effort Award are tentatively scheduled to be announced during the second week of JAN 2012. Letters have been issued already to those offerors who did not make the competitive range for the effort.
Once the contract award is made, there will be a 10-day period in which any Protests to the contract award must be filed. Following that protest period, Army Contracting Command will officially release the names of the awardees.”

Thank you to PEO Soldier for keeping our readers up to date. This should make for a very interesting SHOT Show.

Posted in Camo, Contracts, PEO-Soldier | 7 Comments »

Army Camouflage Improvement Effort for Dummies

Friday, December 16th, 2011

Since we’re seeing a lot of internet chatter indicating that many are under the impression that the Army Camouflage Improvement Effort will immediately result in a singular “winner” and that the Army will immediately replace UCP, we though it would be a good idea to post a few facts in bullet format.

– Universal Camouflage Pattern is not performing as envisioned.

– The Army Camouflage Improvement Effort is a multi-phase project to improve the camouflage of its Soldiers. The Army is seeking a family of three camouflage patterns with identical geometry and tailored colorways for woodland, desert, and transitional environments with an optional fourth pattern to complement Organizational Clothing and Individual Equipment.

– During the current phase industry and government families of patterns were evaluated using a picture-in-picture technique to identify the top four performing commercial submissions (allegedly up to 20 were submitted) and a single top government option. Additionally, a baseline consisting of OCP (MultiCam), MARPAT (Woodland and Desert), AOR (1&2) was also evaluated to determine the current level of camouflage performance afforded by these patterns. This performance metric is referred to as “baseline.”

– Soon, the US Army will announce the finalists consisting of four commercially developed families of patterns and one government developed family of patterns.

– These selected vendors will have their patterns printed on 50/50 NYCO and 500D Cordura fabric and turn this material over to the Army to have uniforms and OCIE manufactured for field trials.

– The Army will conduct field trials consisting of a variety of tests with actual maneuver elements to aid in determining the best camouflage option.

– The Army leadership has been briefed throughout this effort.

– We fully expect the remainder of this effort to take a minimum of 18 months based on the requirement to print fabric in completely new patterns, organize and conduct testing, analyze data and prepare courses of action including programming (finding) rock drills and brief the Army leadership.

– There is still no funding or guarantee that this effort will result in one of these patterns being fielded.

– However, we fully believe that UCP will be replaced. Whether it is with one of the Army Camouflage Improvement Effort family of patterns or another option remains to be seen.

BOTTOM LINE: Based on the effort’s current pace, do not look for a UCP replacement for at least 18 months with further delays likely.

Posted in Camo, Contracts | Comments Off on Army Camouflage Improvement Effort for Dummies

ODG Comments On Camo Improvement Effort

Friday, December 16th, 2011

“MOVE NOT UNLESS YOU SEE AN ADVANTAGE; USE NOT YOUR TROOPS UNLESS THERE IS SOMETHING TO BE GAINED; FIGHT NOT UNLESS THE POSITION IS CRITICAL. IF IT IS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE, MAKE A FORWARD MOVE; IF NOT,STAY WHERE YOU ARE. SITUATION DICTATES FORCE NEEDED TO OVERCOME YOUR ENEMY.”
-Sun Tzu

30 days until SHOT…more to follow…..