Northrop-Cobham team lands Army intercom deal

Northrop Grumman Cobham Intercoms LLC will supply the Army with an enhanced vehicular intercom system that is designed to take advantage of next-generation digital communications technology under a contract potentially worth $2.4 billion over 10 years.

Under the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, Northrop Grumman Cobham will provide the Army’s Communications and Electronics Command with the expanded version of the VIS-X Vehicular Intercommunication System, company officials said today.

VIS-X will give crews improved speech intelligibility and hearing protection, and also provide them with better command and control of on board and external communications equipment, the officials said. By using VIS-X, crews will be able to take advantage of future IP-based digital communications networks, voice-over-IP services and new interfaces offered by next-generation IP radios. VIS-X can be built into new and older vehicles, the officials said.

The agreement stipulates that the contractor must deliver up to 500 VIS-X systems each month during the first year following so-called first article testing and up to 2,000 systems each month in subsequent years, the officials said.

Northrop Grumman Cobham Intercoms was formed by Northrop Grumman, of Los Angeles, and Cobham Defense Electronic Systems, a U.S. subsidiary of Cobham plc, of Wimborne, United Kingdom.

Northrop Grumman ranks No. 3 on Washington Technology’s 2009 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.