Jacobs Engineering is to manage an Australian military project to procure and sustain military off-the-shelf combat bridges.

The award for Project Land 155 is worth $10.7 million. It is for a three-year period and was issued by the Land Systems Division within the Australian Department of Defense's Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group.

The contract reflects a new procurement model being piloted for the first time by the Australian government. As managing contractor, Jacobs will be responsible for project management, budgeting, logistic support analysis and management, engineering and contract management.

"Jacobs is proud to pilot this new procurement model for the Australian Department of Defense, a model we strongly encouraged the agency to consider," said Jacobs Senior Vice President Aerospace and Technology Darren Kraabel. "We have seen first-hand the benefits of this approach through our extensive experience in implementing similar managing contractor models for the U.S. Department of Defense to help procure and sustain everything from aircraft and air operations centers to individual soldier protective equipment.

"We recognize a key factor in the successful delivery of Project LAND 155 is to continually seek ways to reduce costs throughout the project delivery lifecycle. The documented savings we have helped achieve in the U.S. using similar procurement models is indicative of the kind of savings we expect the model to deliver for CASG."