Defense Department 'bundles' handheld radio procurements.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: COMMUNICATIONS

THE DEFENSE Department is expected to soon seek industry bids for as many as 89,000 handheld combat radios. To obtain lower prices, the Pentagon will consolidate multiple contracts that currently are managed individually by each military service.

The Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Special Operations Command already are buying thousands of radios, and plan to continue to acquire thousands more. But Pentagon procurement officials are moving to centralize all single-channel handheld radios under a new contracting arrangement.

The San Diego-based office that currently oversees the Joint Tactical Radio System also will manage the so-called "consolidated, interim, single-channel handheld radio" program.

The presumption is that these radios are stopgaps until the JTRS program begins delivering the next generation of handheld radios in 2012.

The services' orders will be packaged under a contracting vehicle known as "indefinite delivery indefinite quantity." Vendors would bid for one-year fixed-price "procurement lots" and four additional one-year options. Between now and 2012, the Defense Department could buy as many as 89,220 handheld radios, spare parts and accessories. Although prices vary widely based on quantities and features, military handheld radios generally cost about $5,000 each.

Under the $3 billion JTRS program, the Defense Department is developing a family of software-based radios, including a single-channel and a two-channel handheld. The JTRS devices have taken much longer to develop than originally planned, so the services have opted to purchase radios already available in the marketplace. Two of those radios--the AN/PRC-148 multiband...