U.S. Army Contracts for Ruggedized Next-Gen Maintenance & Testing systems Announced

The contract, a five-year Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity award for the Maintenance Support Device (MSD), Version 4 Rugged & Semi-Rugged systems, is worth up to $292 million. The systems deliver at-platform automatic test equipment for harsh environments, such as tactical motor pools, where hardened equipment offers consistent performance

The contract was announced by the U.S. Army Product Director Test, Measurement and Diagnostic Equipment; Leonardo DRS teamed with Dell to provide a family of ruggedized commercial, off-the-shelf systems to provide the Army with the latest portable, lightweight computers for the program.

This new MSD is based on a technology roadmap that enables the Army to seamlessly integrate new processing technologies as they become available, while allowing users to integrate new capabilities without disrupting the program or fielding strategies.

The system is the Army’s next generation of standard general purpose, at-platform automatic test equipment for a wide variety of mission critical systems, including wheeled and tracked vehicles, communications systems, aviation, missiles, artillery and other complex weapons systems. Additionally, the system can be used to host Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals and Electronic Technical Manuals to enable operators to troubleshoot and diagnose performance faults in real-time while conducting scheduled maintenance.

Under the contract, Leonardo DRS will provide the complete MSD V4 kits, including computing hardware, cables, connector accessories, software and Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals to Army-wide level 1 maintainers.

“By closely working with Dell, we are pleased to provide the Army with these new soldier-friendly advanced maintenance systems, while addressing  Army requirements for next-generation equipment testing,” said Bill Guyan, vice president and general manager of the Leonardo DRS Land Electronics business unit. “By combining best-of-breed commercial off-the-shelf technologies with our expertise in cyber and rugged computing, we can provide the Army a cost-effective solution with new capabilities to meet the full range of Level 1 maintenance for deployed soldiers and maintainers,” Guyan said. 

Army ground and aviation maintainers will use the new capabilities with interactive electronic technical manuals to run application software and upload and download mission data or software. These systems are unique to prior maintenance support devices because they were developed with close input from soldiers.

Assembly of the systems will be done at the Leonardo DRS Land Electronics facility in Huntsville, Alabama.

About Leonardo DRS

Leonardo DRS is a prime contractor, leading technology innovator and supplier of integrated products, services and support to military forces, intelligence agencies and defense contractors worldwide. Its Land Electronics business unit Provides C4I Network computing and integrated situational awareness, as well as state-of-the-art embedded diagnostics, vehicle power management and combat vehicle integration products and services. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Leonardo DRS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Leonardo S.p.A. See the full range of capabilities at www.LeonardoDRS.com and on Twitter @LeonardoDRSnews.

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