Marines award $775 million computer hardware contract to 10 companies
Marine Corps
By
Bob Brewin
Massive buy covers purchase of 400,000 computers and servers over five years.
The Marine Corps has awarded a massive contract to cover the $775 million purchase of 400,000 computers to 10 companies.
When the Marines kicked off the procurement for its Common Hardware Suite in June 2011, it pegged the value at $880 million, or $105 million more than the contracts awarded Thursday.
The procurement covers a range of computer hardware, such as desktop and laptop computers, including rugged models for field use, tablets and servers. Laptops and desktop computers account for more than half the gear. The Marines plan to buy 131,965 general purpose laptops and 141,838 desktops over a five year period.
The Marines said they plan to use this massive buy to establish a standardized computing equipment environment for deploying units and also to provide equipment for domestic organizations that will be connected to the Navy and Marine Corps’ Next-Generation Enterprise Network.
Companies the Marines tapped to supply the equipment are Blue Tech, CDWG, Counter Trade Products, Integrated Technologies Group, Intelligent Decisions, Dell, GTSI, Iron Bow, NCS Technologies and World Wide Technology.
These companies will compete for task orders the Marines issue off the hardware contract.