TEAC HAS RECEIVED a US Navy contract to supply 209 airborne video-tape recorders for US Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas (MDC)AV-8B Harrier IIs. The same system will now be offered to Italy and Spain, both of which countries are operators of the AV-8B.
The Navy had planned to exercise its option to acquire the AV-8B video-recorder from Precision Echo, supplier of the system for the MDCF-18, but decided to open the contract to competition after experiencing severe reliability problems with the F-18 recorder. Enginetics, Precision Echo and TEAC submitted bids.
TEAC says that its V-80AB-F 8mm recorder has a demonstrated mean time between failures of more than 2,000h.
Montebello, California-based TEAC America Airborne Video Products, objected to the decision, made in December 1994, to award the F-18 contract to Precision Echo, which had offered a cheaper unit based on a repackaged consumer video recorder.
TEAC emphasises that its recorders "-are not a repackaged consumer product, but have been designed for severe military environments", which, according to the company, reduces their life-cycle costs.
Source: Flight International