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News | Feb. 1, 2022

Troop Support partners to provide warmth to Indian Armed Forces

By Christian Deluca DLA Troop Support Public Affairs

The Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support’s Construction and Equipment  team recently delivered on an $8 million contract for 15,000 extreme cold weather sleep systems for India’s Armed Forces through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program.
 

The Army’s Tank-automotive and Armaments Command passed the request to C&E’s Special Operations Equipment team on behalf of the Indian military, some of whom are in north Kashmir experiencing minus 20-degree weather and 5-10 feet of snow. Despite supply chain challenges, the team was able to complete delivery in December 2021.

“Through the diligent work of DLA, the vendors, and our partners at [Army Materiel Command], TACOM, and [U.S. Army Security Assistance Command], we were able to successfully improve the delivery schedule from March 2022 to December 2021, which met the mission requirements for the FMS Case and Country of India,” Howard Page, C&E’s director of Supplier Operations said.

The initial award was made October 27, 2020 for delivery in October 2021, but due to various manufacturing delays including COVID-19 and Hurricane Ida impacts, the delivery date had been pushed to March 2022. C&E was informed in August that the delayed timeframe would not work for India’s military and began working with stakeholders to find a way to improve the delivery date.

Based on market research conducted by Army Contracting Command and TACOM, there were no other sleep systems available that met the weather specification needed, so the answer was to find a way to ramp up production, Page said.

“The entire effort required daily meetings between the manufacturers, vendors, ACC, AMC, DLA, TACOM, USASAC, and the Army’s 404th Transportation Group which started in August and continued throughout final delivery,” Page said. “We had to ensure the manufacturer was making progress and transportation planning was postured to pick-up the material.”

DLA Troop Support Commander Army Brig. Gen. Eric P. Shirley said the efforts show that Troop Support is not only committed to supporting our nation’s warfighters and whole of government partners, but friendly foreign nations as well. 

“These sleep systems will enhance the tactical endurance of some of our global partners,” Shirley said. “It shows that we are a reliable partner, and serves as a testament to the dedication and professionalism of our C&E team.”