The US Air Force (USAF) has awarded a contract to DRS C3 & Aviation for the Design & Engineering Support Programme III (DESP III).

DRS is one of 26 other prime contractors for the USAF indefinite delivery / indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract vehicle, which has a ceiling value of $1.9bn and is expected to end in January 2019.

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Under the contract, the company will provide engineering services in the areas of new design, technical documentation, diminishing material and manufacturing sources, environmental improvement issues, reliability, productivity, efficiency, and cost saving.

The support services related to engineering tasks include engineering design, technology insertion, form-fit-function replacement, technology refresh, supportability improvement, analysis, assessment, and investigation of problems and failures and with identification of solution alternatives.

Additional engineering tasks support include technical and cost trade-offs, process improvement efforts, operational or logistics supportability, reliability, availability, operational safety, suitability, and effectiveness, requirements traceability, configuration management, environmental related issues among others.

A follow-on contract to DESP II for the acquisition of engineering and technical services, DESP III aims to improve sustainment, operational life, performance and system life cycle cost of Air Force systems and subsystems and was specifically created for use within the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC).

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The DESP III initiative involves the provision of a wide range of engineering services and high-level technical services for weapons systems, components and support equipment for the USAF as well as other Department of Defense agencies.

The programme will fund all contractors based on the services provided and is managed by the Air Logistics Center at Hill Air Force Base, Ogden, Utah, US.

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