Air Force selects vendors for accessories, rugged devices

Air Force officials announced today that they chose seven vendors for a purchasing agreement that covers up to $223 million of system accessories and rugged hardware during the next three years.

The Headquarters Standard System Group, located in Gunter Annex at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., selected GTSI Corp., Insight Public Sector, Rocky Mountain RAM LLC, Technology Integration Group (TIG), Westwood Computer Corp. and World Wide Technology Inc. (WWT) to provide system accessories. It also chose Intelligent Decisions Inc. and GTSI, Insight Public Sector, TIG, Westwood and WWT as sellers of hardened devices.

Both arrangements are blanket-purchase agreements, which are open-ended vehicles through which products are bought as needed. They cover one year with two one-year options.

"System accessories and rugged devices were ideal supplier market categories for small business competition and provides opportunity to enhance small-business participation," said Capt. Matthew Hartman, acquisition program manager at Headquarters Standard System Group, in an Air Force statement. "Our upcoming planned source selections will look at desktops and input/output peripherals, as well as notebooks, servers, enterprise software and high-end workstations all being scheduled during the next year."

The group sought responses June 11 and adhered to best value characteristics during the competition, the statement said.