Navy boosts small firm with $94M weather deal

The new PS2201 2.2kva ups is used in this system.

Article courtsey of Washington Business Journal. <http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2002/04/01/story3.html>

Steve Fortner and Herb McDermott are feeling the U.S. Navy's wind beneath their Fredericksburg company's wings.

More than $94 million worth of wind.

McDermott and Fortner's company, Quality Performance Inc. (QPI), has won a $94.4 million contract to install new wind and weather gauging equipment on Navy vessels.

The nine-employee outfit beat some defense industry giants, including Raytheon and L3 Communications, to win the five-year contract.

"This is a quantum leap for us," says Fortner, the company's vice president.

But the contract win is not a traditional David vs. Goliath story.

QPI's main subcontractor on the effort is Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin -- the world's largest defense company -- and the new wind measuring equipment to be installed is manufactured in Britain by Aeronautical & General Instruments. QPI (http://www.goqpi.com) is the U.S. distributor for AGI's products.

The contract was awarded under the Moriah Wind System project, which seeks to upgrade how the Navy gauges and measures wind speed and direction in its fleet.

QPI will replace antiquated, World War II- and Cold War-era anemometers with digital ultrasonic wind system technologies.

"Basically they are building wind sensors and weather measures," says a Navy spokeswoman at the Naval Air Warfare Center in Patuxent, Md.

Such equipment is used to help launch and land aircraft. QPI installed the British-built wind systems on eight ships as part of pilot project in anticipation of the $94 million contract.

The Pentagon solicited 41 proposals in October and received four offers -- from QPI, Raytheon, L3 and Coastal Environmental. The contract was awarded March 22.

This is by far the biggest contract QPI has received since its founding in 1990. Its largest federal job before this totaled $2 million, company executives say. Other QPI federal customers include D.C.-based Naval Sea Systems Command (Navsea) and the Defense Logistics Agency.

QPI already has received its first $2.1 million delivery order from the Naval Air Systems Command. McDermott, QPI's president, is optimistic the Navy will extend the contract beyond its original 2007 end date.

"We really believe it will go out to seven," says McDermott, who, like Fortner, is a Vietnam veteran.

QPI, which will handle project management, support services and logistical operations on the contract, plans to boost its work force from nine to 15.

Lockheed Martin will handle most of the equipment installation out of its Manassas plant.

QPI officials expect to be pretty busy over the course of the contract because the Navy wants the wind equipment installed on 150 ships.

Says McDermott: "The Navy wants to do 30 ships a year."