An HH-60 Pave Hawk flies to an airfield near Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, April 11, 2017. (Penny Snoozy/U.S. Air National Guard)
(Tribune News Service) — Huntington Ingalls Industries has won a contract to help with rescue operations for the U.S. Africa Command.
The contract, with a potential value of $346 million, calls on HII’s fast-growing Technical Solutions division to provide services ranging from planning to maintenance to emergency medical care for Africa Command operations to recover personnel and evacuate casualties.
The contract is for one year with four one-year options to extend.
HII’s support is aimed at reducing evacuation response and transport times and improving survival odds for personnel in the command’s east African area of operations.
The command has three base facilities in Djibouti, at the mouth of the Red Sea, and is continuing to support efforts to bring peace to Somalia, still struggling with the al-Shabaab insurgency.
U.S. Africa Command is sponsoring an exercise to enhance maritime law enforcement with forces from Comoros, Djibouti, Georgia, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, United Kingdom, and the United States.
“As a retired Marine with first-hand experience in the Horn of Africa, I recognize the unique challenges of the region and what this service means to the commanders and soldiers on the ground,” Garry Schwartz, president of Technical Solutions’ Defense and Federal Solutions business group. “We are honored to support life-saving operations for our nation’s service members.”
HII’s Technical solutions is one of the only operators of contractor-owned, contractor-operated airborne intelligence collection platforms and provides planning services for intelligence operations.
It also provides professional emergency preparedness services at military facilities around the world.
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