6 win $300M armament research contract

Six companies including Top 100 companies such as Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics and Leidos have won spots to support the Army’s weapons development center.

The five-year contract will support the Army’s Armament, Research, Development, and Engineering Center, which is based primarily at the Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey.

The six winning companies are:

• Alliant Techsystems
• Battelle Memorial Institute
• Booz Allen Hamilton
• Concurrent Technologies
• General Dynamics Ordinance Tactical Systems
• Leidos

The companies will compete for task orders that help the center, known by the acronym ARDEC, meet its mission requirements.

The center focuses on the advancement of armament technologies and engineering innovation, according to its website. It is a specialty research and development center with the Army Materiel Command.

ARDEC provides life-cycle support for nearly 90 percent of the lethal Army systems used by U.S. warfighters. Its goals are soldier survivability and enhancing platform and area protection.

Interestingly, it also is in the tech transfer business with technologies going to law enforcement in areas such as non-lethal means of crowd control and a forcible entry device for breeching doors.

Military warhead expertise is helping the oil and gas industry develop better drilling technologies. Other U.S. industries have used model-based control and environmentally safer manufacturing methods developed at the center, according to its website.