Army to General Dynamics: New computers, and that's an order

General Dynamics Corp. will sell the Army an extra $35.3 million worth of computer equipment under the company's existing Common Hardware/Software II and Common Hardware/Software III contracts, the company said last week.

Under a $23 million modification to the CHS-2 contract, Falls Church, Va.-based General Dynamics will provide mobile local area networks, rugged servers, gateways and other equipment to the Project Manager Army Tactical Operations Centers/Air and Missile Defense Command and Control Systems.

The contract modification raises the total value of the CHS-2 contract to $944.9 million since it was awarded in 1995.

General Dynamics also has received a delivery order for $12.3 million worth of equipment on its CGS-3 contract, which was awarded in June 2003. General Dynamics C4 Systems of Scottsdale, Ariz., won the CHS-3 contract, which is the successor program to CHS-2. The new contract runs through 2013 with a ceiling value of $2 billion.

The Army's Common Hardware Software programs "provide the warfighter with smaller, lighter and more capable solutions," said Mike DiBiase, managing director of commercial hardware systems for General Dynamics C4 Systems.

Through the CHS programs, General Dynamics provides Army, Air Force and Marine tactical computer users with ruggedized workstations and their associated hardware and software. The new orders, for example, include more than 450 ruggedized Unix-based laptops.

The company uses commercial off-the-shelf technologies and provides extensive testing and integration to ensure the systems operate in military deployments.

With 2003 revenue of $16.6 billion, General Dynamics ranked No. 7 on Washington Technology's 2003 Top 100 list, which measures federal contracting revenue. Washington Technology's 2004 rankings are due out in May.