By John Keller
BURLINGTON, Mass. - Officials of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) made two urgent orders within a week’s time in September to increase their purchases of the Man Transportable Robotic System (MTRS) bomb-disposal equipment.
iRobot Corp. in Burlington, Mass., won a $95.6 million contract modification to increase the number of available MTRS units from 250 to 1,200.
A week earlier, Foster-Miller Inc. in Waltham, Mass., won a similar $96.1 million contract modification to provide an additional 250 to 1,200 MTRS production units.
DOD officials are emphasizing that these hurry-up orders for additional bomb-disposal robots are due to the urgent and compelling need for units that are forward deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The MTRS is a small robotic system used for remote reconnaissance of unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices. Both orders came from the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command Indian Head Division in Indian Head, Md.
The MTRS, which will be able to operate in urban and rural environments, is a modular system that will allow interoperability with future mission packages such as chemical and nuclear detectors, EOD render safe tools, EOD disruption tools, and EOD disposal tools.
The system architecture (of the MTRS will be expandable and inherently upgradeable to allow for future enhancements.
