Army, Marines get more rugged
$3.2 million worth of rugged computers ordered for digital battlefield applications
To perform a variety of digital battlefield applications, the Army and the Marine Corps recently ordered $3.2 million worth of new rugged computers from DRS Technologies Inc.
General Dynamics Communication Systems awarded the contracts, announced Oct.22, to DRS for the company's Explorer MP rugged portable multiplatform workstations and 18-inch flat-panel displays, servers and other workstations.
DRS Explorer MP workstations are full-function, integrated, portable computers based on Sun Microsystems Inc.'s UltraSPARC IIi. They enable users to run such programs as combat information systems, geographic information systems and fire control applications.
The workstations support the latest Sun SPARC and Intel Corp. Pentium processors, together with advanced multimedia and graphics systems. The Explorer MP systems also are designed to support new versions of the ATX form factor processors, as they become available.
Mark Newman, DRS Technologies' chairman, president and chief executive officer, said the company's "portable, battle-ready and reliable commercial off-the-shelf workstations have been proven to operate under extremely harsh conditions...[and] directly support the goal of our armed forces to support current initiatives and dominate the expanded battle space of the 21st century."