Defense Travel System contract awarded to TRW

The Defense Department moved a step closer to one-stop, electronic shopping for items such as airline tickets and hotel and meal vouchers with today's award of the key Defense Travel System (DTS) contract to TRW Inc.

The contract, valued at $263.7 million by the Pentagon, covers the provision of travel services to all military personnel in the Midwestern states as well as the worldwide deployment of a computerized travel system.

John Hamre, deputy secretary of Defense, said he views the DTS contract as a linchpin in the Pentagon's efforts to move to a paperless contracting environment by the turn of the century and to help make up for the shortfall in the DOD budget. In congressional testimony, Hamre estimated that it takes DOD two to five hours to issue a travel voucher using its antiquated paper-based process, with estimated labor costs ranging from $45 to $115 per trip.

A TRW spokesman said DOD spends about $3 billion a year on travel and another $1 billion on travel management. Phil Odeen, former chairman of BDM and now vice president of TRW Systems and Information Technology Group, called the DTS "a key infrastructure improvement program that will result in savings that can be used for weapons systems modernization."

TRW will design, integrate and operate DTS for DOD. Its partners include Gelco Information Network, Minneapolis, which will provide travel management software; American Express Government Services, which will provide travel management services; Sun Microsystems Inc., which will provide computer hardware; and Oracle Corp., which will supply database management software.Electronic Data Systems Corp. was the only other company to bid on the contract.