DLA awarded Bren-Tronics (EnerSys) a four-year IDIQ on 25 August for up to 22,000 BB-2001A/U batteries — the li-ion power source for the AN/PRQ-7 CSEL survival radio. Ceiling $9.79M, orders through August 2030. Four firms responded. Bren-Tronics has held this NSN before.
What the award establishes is an ordering vehicle. No cell supplier, no chemistry, no FEOC cost-share evidence appears in the public record. Bren-Tronics describes its cells as COTS-sourced, without disclosing the supplier.
The §4865 deadline that applies here is ambiguous. CSEL reached FOC in 2009, placing it in the existing-program cohort with a 2031 deadline. But the BB-2001A/U serves a joint radio across four services, procured through DLA rather than a single PEO — a profile consistent with the "standard battery" definition, which would pull the deadline to January 2029. The contract runs through 2030, straddling both possible clocks. Whether anyone in the procurement chain has resolved which clock governs is not visible from the public record.
Contract: SPRBL1-26-D-0014, DLA Weapons Support Land, Aberdeen
NSN: 6140-01-534-3856 (BB-2001A/U)
Platform: AN/PRQ-7-7A CSEL joint combat survival radio — Air Force-led, fielded across Army, Navy, Air Force, USMC
Ceiling: $9.79M / 22,000 units (~$445 implied unit price; editorial calculation)
Period: Four years; delivery orders through 23 August 2030
Minimum order: Not publicly disclosed
Prior supply signal: Army Sustainment Command directed units to substitute non-rechargeable CSEL batteries in January 2023 due to rechargeable stock shortages
§4865 status: No FEOC declaration, cell-supplier disclosure, or functional-component cost evidence in the public record