Army buys tech for tactical centers

General Dynamics Corp. won a $7 million contract for hardware and software for tactical operations centers where commanders make battlefield decisions.

The Army awarded a $7 million contract to General Dynamics Corp. to buy hardware and software for tactical operations centers where commanders make decisions on the battlefield.

The service used the Common Hardware/Software II contract to purchase local area networks in transit cases, 251 ruggedized Intel Corp. Xeon servers, a compact PCI server platform, and Vantage communications gateways, routers and High Speed Forward Error Correction adapter boxes, said an April 1 General Dynamics statement. Company officials said they received $23 million in delivery orders.

General Dynamics' C4 Systems division in Taunton, Mass., will complete the work by April 2005. The Army's Communications-Electronics Command at Fort Monmouth, N.J., awarded the contract, said an April 2 Defense Department contracts' statement.

The Army awarded the CHS-2 contract in 1995 so the service, Air Force and Marine Corps could buy commercial and ruggedized hardware and software. The service bought $945 million worth of information technology equipment to date using the contract, said the General Dynamics statement.

The company won the newer, $2 billion CHS-3 contract in June.