THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 29, 1995 TAG: 9509270236
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 03W EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY XIAOHONG ZHANG SWAIN, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
A U.S. Navy contract recently awarded to an Alexandria-based company could potentially create more than 200 new jobs in Chesapeake.
The contract is for providing engineering, technical and logistics support services for U.S. ships purchased, leased or transferred to foreign countries.
The initial value of the contract is $202 million, but it could amount to more than $1 billion over a 20-year period.
The recipient of the contract is VSE Corp. of Alexandria, which employs about 65 persons in its Chesapeake office. VSE provides engineering, development, testing and management services to maintain and modernize products, equipment and systems mainly for the U.S. government.
``We expect to have an increase of over 200 employees,'' said Mike Hamerly, the office's group manager. He said the final details of the contract are still being worked out.
On Sept. 13, American System Engineering Corp., a Virginia Beach-based company, sued the Navy in Norfolk federal court in dispute of the Navy's awarding the contract to VSE. The protester had a lower bid for the contract and it wanted the contract to be blocked until the General Accounting Office had a chance to review the dispute.
``That problem has to be solved before the contract is in effect,'' said Hamerly.
Hamerly said the full effect of the contract on the Chesapeake operation is uncertain.
The VSE Chesapeake office identifies jobs to be done to the ships, writes work specifications and orders materials needed for the jobs. by CNB