Engineered Support Systems Inc received a production order totaling $6.2 million from the United States Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) for 95 additional M989A1 Heavy Expanded Mobility Ammunition Trailers (HEMATs).
This order increases the total number of HEMATs under contract to 495, bringing the total contract value to approximately $35 million. Production under the contract at the company's manufacturing facility in West Plains MO is expected to run though mid-2005, according to Jerry Daniels, vice-chairman and chief executive officer.
The Army exercised options under an existing long-term contract with the company's Systems & Electronics Inc (SEI) subsidiary to purchase the HEMAT, a high-mobility trailer with a payload capacity of 11 tons that is designed to transport multiple-launch rocket pods, palletized/unpalletized conventional ammunition, and fuel bladders and pods on paved, secondary, or cross-country roads. HEMATs manufactured by SEI were used extensively by MLRS battalions during Operation Iraqi Freedom.