WASHINGTON — Arlington-based ITC Defense Corp has won a $7.7 million contract through a foreign military sale to develop and field a system to help Kuwait keep track of its military vehicles.
Late last year, an American-supplied Abrams tank was dropped off at a US-supported repair facility in Iraq by Shia militiamen. Workers there found a Russian machine gun with Iranian ammo attached to it.
ITC's Vehicle Management System could prevent Kuwait's vehicles from meeting the same Frankenstein-like fate as the Abrams tank in Iraq that caused a stir over possible twin violations of Iraq's FMS agreements with Washington.
ITC will be responsible for establishing a "centralized tracking and secure transmission of GPS data," develop and test customized vehicle management and tracking software, manage the installation of the GPS units, "integrate communications," conduct training and provide support through February 2018, according to a company statement.
Such a system set up in Kuwait makes sense as other incidents of US military vehicles ending up in the wrong hands in surrounding countries have surfaced.
While Washington continues to send US State Department-approved weaponry to Iraq on the condition that US materiel remains under the strict command and control of Iraqi Security Forces, one video from last year shows a convoy of US vehicles, including an Abrams, flying the Hezbollah flags as they passed through the Iraqi desert, which offered circumstantial evidence that Iranian-controlled forces under the PMF umbrella had gained access to US-origin hardware.
Email: jjudson@defensenews.com
Twitter: @JenJudson
Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.
