Defense Department 'bundles' handheld radio procurements.

THE DEFENSE Department is expected to soon seek industry bids for as many as 89,000 handheld combat radios. To obtain lower prices, the Pentagon will consolidate multiple contracts that currently are managed individually by each military service.

The Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Special Operations Command already are buying thousands of radios, and plan to continue to acquire thousands more. But Pentagon procurement officials are moving to centralize all single-channel handheld radios under a new contracting arrangement.

The San Diego-based office that currently oversees the Joint Tactical Radio System also will manage the so-called "consolidated, interim, single-channel handheld radio" program.

The presumption is that these radios are stopgaps until the JTRS program begins delivering the next generation of handheld radios in 2012.

The services' orders will be packaged under a contracting vehicle known as "indefinite delivery indefinite quantity." Vendors would bid for one-year fixed-price "procurement lots" and four additional one-year options. Between now and 2012, the Defense Department could buy as many as 89,220 handheld radios, spare parts and accessories. Although prices vary widely based on quantities and features, military handheld radios generally cost about $5,000 each.

Under the $3 billion JTRS program, the Defense Department is developing a family of software-based radios, including a single-channel and a two-channel handheld. The JTRS devices have taken much longer to develop than originally planned, so the services have opted to purchase radios already available in the marketplace. Two of those radios--the AN/PRC-148 multiband inter/intra team and the AN/PRC-152 handheld--were not designed under the JTRS program but conform to many of the government's specs, and have been endorsed by the JTRS program office.

The Army recently ordered 5,000 of the JTRS-approved PRC-148, made by Thales Communications. The manufacturer of the PRC-152, Harris RF Communications, said it has shipped 12,000 radios during the past 18 months. Both are expected to remain in full-rate production for years to come, in response to soaring demand, the manufacturers have said.

At the request of Pentagon procurement chief Kenneth Krieg, the JTRS program office will bundle all single-channel handheld radio acquisitions under a single contract. The goal is to obtain price breaks from manufacturers based on larger quantities--versus the current approach, where every order is negotiated individually by each service.

Under a recently revised policy, the services must obtain a "JTRS waiver" from the Defense Department before they can purchase single-channel handheld radios.

The waiver policy, which effectively restricts purchases to the JTRS-approved PRC-152 and PRC-148 radios, was not well received by the Army, sources said. According to one Army official, the waiver is a "senseless requirement for additional paperwork and justification for procuring JPEO-endorsed products."