ESSI picked for environmental controls

Engineered Support Systems Inc. received a $14.8 million contract to produce 1,388 Field Deployable Environmental Control Units for the Air Force's Basic Expeditionary Airfield Resources program, company officials said.

A field control unit controls temperature in environments ranging from 25 degrees below zero to 125 degrees. It is used in base camps for heating and cooling shelters, officials from the St. Louis company said.

The units support the Air Force's BEAR mobility equipment sets, better known as Harvest Falcon and Harvest Eagle, said Gerald Potthoff, Engineered Support's vice chairman and chief executive officer.

"The Harvest Falcon and Eagle sets are designed and sized to provide, from the ground up, all the billeting, industrial and airfield capability needed for more than 68,000 combat troops and 800 aircraft to operate in austere locations," he said.

Engineered Support's subsidiary Keco Industries will work on the project.

Engineered Support offers sustainment solutions, including the design, manufacture and supply of integrated military electronics, support equipment and technical and logistics services for all branches of the armed forces and certain foreign militaries, homeland security forces and selected government and intelligence agencies.