Gentex helmets for Austria

[Dawes]

Never gave it much thought, but I had assumed that Austria used helmets from Germany, France, or some other European manufacturer. From today's DoD contract announcements:

Gentex Corp., Simpson, Pennsylvania, was awarded a $14,128,200 firm-fixed-price contract for the acquisition of Sentry XP helmets. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Simpson, Pennsylvania, with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2022. Fiscal 2021 Foreign Military Sales (Austria) funds in the amount of $14,128,200 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W91CRB-21-C-0027).

[Dawes]

I know that Austria is probably not paying top price for these, but I didn't realize that helmets of this type were so pricey:

https://shop.gentexcorp.com/ops-core-sentry-xp-mid-cut-helmet/

[Simon Tan]

Ops-core be like the Bentley of lids.

[DB]

On 5/26/2021 at 1:11 AM, Dawes said:

I know that Austria is probably not paying top price for these, but I didn't realize that helmets of this type were so pricey:

https://shop.gentexcorp.com/ops-core-sentry-xp-mid-cut-helmet/

FMS are required to be at a greater unit cost than US mil purchases. US gear is rarely actually cheap, nor even cheaper than comparable equipment from other sources.

The UK's National Audit Office loves to point out how expensive UK procurements of US equipment end up being, especially considering how poor any offset agreements tend to be. (Creating a UK office with a handful of staff that funnels the cash to the US is not an offset agreement.)

[Dawes]

Depending on the item, some countries do a direct commercial purchase. Presumably, this can save a bit of money over an equivalent FMS purchase. Of course, if you want someone else to do all the paperwork then FMS would be the way to go.