NEWMARKET, Ontario—AirBoss of America Corp.'s diverse defense products operation has become a mainstay within the company throughout the erratic COVID-19 pandemic.
On Sept. 28, the business landed a two-year extension to a Husky 2G long-term contract originally awarded by the U.S. Army in March 2017. The new award for support equipment was made by the Army Contracting Command Warren and is valued at up to $35.6 million.
The Husky 2G is a vehicle-mounted mine detection system deploying a range of radar and sensor systems to countermine and detect non-conventional explosives on a blast-survivable, mission-configurable vehicle platform.
AirBoss Defense Group then received various awards on Oct. 5 totaling about $22 million for gloves, overboots and other products to supply U.S. military forces. Those contracts are not related to the Husky extension pact.
ADG's latest contracts come on the heels of two large awards received in late March and July from agencies within the U.S. government for Powered Air Purifying Respirator systems. Those pacts totaled in excess of $215 million.
The original long-term award for the Husky previously was made by the U.S. Army Contracting Command to Critical Solutions International Inc. (CSI), which was merged with AirBoss Defense Group Jan. 1, 2020. The company said that pact, made in 2017, was for the Husky 2G protected Payload Delivery Vehicle and its associated route clearance payloads.
Equipment included in the two-year extension award "is manufactured by our strategic technology partners," said Chris Bitsakakis, president and chief operating officer of Newmarket-headquartered AirBoss. "We do manage the integrated logistics support—spare parts kitting—at our facility in Charleston, S.C."
To date, AirBoss Defense Group has deployed more than 1,500 Husky systems globally, the company said.
AirBoss said the contract extension provides foreign military sales customers with an avenue to procure protected payloads, spare parts and training in support of the Husky 2G vehicle system.
It gives them "a streamlined acquisition process allowing ADG to more rapidly respond to our customer's needs," Bitsakakis said. "It provides an open contracting mechanism with budgeted funding to support the increasing demand for Husky 2G vehicles as well as sustainment support for our customer's existing fleet."
Under the original base contract, valued at $132 million, CSI delivered 41 Husky vehicle systems with associated protected payloads, including Interrogation Arms, Ground Penetrating Radar, 360-degree cameras, self defense Remote Weapon Stations and RPG nets, a netting system that encapsulates a vehicle to disrupt and defeat rocket propelled grenades.
Delivery of the equipment covered in the latest contract was launched in September and will continue until September 2022, according to Bitsakakis.
He said "contracts of this nature are the result of CSI's strong relationships with their existing customers and speak to the longevity and applicability of the solutions, which we expect to contribute a more stable underlying revenue stream over a multi-year period."
The orders AirBoss received on Oct. 5 included molded gloves and overboots for the United Arab Emirates, valued at $6.4 million; Husky ground penetrating radar and accessories for the Egyptian Regiment (a unit of the U.S. Army in Europe), worth about $5.8 million; and a Rollover Detection Warning System for the 2nd Cavalry Regiment (another unit of the U.S. Army in Europe), valued at $2.1 million.
Also included are some smaller orders from various groups in the U.S., with a focus on chemical and biological personal equipment such as mass casualty decontamination shelter systems and various Powered Air Purifying Respirator products.
ADG's molded gloves and boots are made with an injection-molded advanced specialty polymer and originally were designed to provide superior physical properties and protection compared to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear products previously used, and fully integrate with all currently fielded CBRN suits, AirBoss said.
The company's boots and gloves have been broadly adopted globally, the company added, and have been used in more than 40 countries.
