The US Army is looking to award a $485m contract to streamline the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) defence development cycle.

The new contract will support the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center’s (ECBC) research, development, experimentation, product engineering and integration, testing, safety, surety, security, health and environmental programmes.

The new contract will replace two existing deals and help in the transition from the research segment of the development cycle to the engineering stage.

Proposals are to be released in two separate requests. The first contract would be an open competition with the second reserved for small business contractors.