Army announces $25B in Aberdeen opportunities

In a standing-room-only meeting held in an Aberdeen Proving Ground auditorium, the Army rolled out details on Dec. 2 of the more than $25 billion in contracts that will come to the area as part of a national military base restructuring, the Baltimore Sun reported.

The “advanced planning briefing,” packed with hundreds of business leaders, is one of the first tangible signs that private contractors near the Maryland Army post could benefit from the big-ticket defense contracts in these days of pullbacks, according to the Sun report.

Defense analyst Loren Thompson said the $10 billion communications electronics contract alone “would be among the largest electronics contracts awarded in the world in any given year.” The five-year contract includes hardware, software, engineering services and other work related to tactical command, control and communications systems.

Some of the other Army contracts, according to the Sun, were:

• A $475 million contract for research and development in areas including radar technologies and radio-frequency sensors.
• A $513 million contract for IT support.    
• A $1 billion contract for tactical biometrics systems such as handheld identity detection equipment.