US Air Force Taps HP for PCs and Laptops

July 24, 2008

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) has selected HP desktop and notebook PCs as part of its semi-annual IT purchase process, under the Air Force DLS (desktop, laptop and services) contract.

The purchase, part of the Air Force Quarterly Enterprise Buy (QEB), includes more than 110,000 desktops and 31,000 notebooks that will be distributed to Air Force bases around the world. Through its QEBs, the Air Force has procured more PCs and workstations from HP than from any other vendor or manufacturer.

To meet the USAF’s personal computing and mobility needs in the United States and around the world, HP will provide HP Compaq dc5850 Small Form Factor and Microtower PCs, HP Compaq 8510p Notebook PCs and HP Compaq 8710w Mobile Workstations.

“HP has had a longstanding relationship with the U.S. Air Force,” said Sami Zarzour, vice president, Public Sector Volume Sales, HP. “Our best-in-class systems are the ideal choice for meeting their complex IT requirements.”

This QEB includes the USAF’s first purchase of mobile workstations, which provide high-end graphics capabilities, a larger screen than typical notebooks and enhanced processing power. The HP Compaq dc5850 desktops offer high-end capabilities and power-efficient performance for uncompromising results in an affordable, reliable unit. And the HP Compaq 8510p Notebook PC is a powerful, portable notebook that weighs only 6.1 pounds.

All of these systems are energy efficient and have been favorably rated by the Green Electronics Council’s Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT™): the HP dc5850 is rated Gold, the highest available rating, and the HP 8510p and 8710w are both rated EPEAT Silver.

HP was selected as the Best Value Vendor for the desktop and laptop categories by the USAF’s Information Technology Commodity Council, which includes representatives from the USAF’s major commands. As part of this August 2007 award, HP delivered more than 150,000 systems to the USAF.

In October 2004, the USAF awarded HP a five-year DLS blanket purchase agreement under the provisions of the Air Force PC strategy, which allows HP to bid on USAF QEBs for computer systems.

Overall, HP has delivered more than $185 million worth of products to the USAF through the QEB process since October 2004, including more than 320,000 desktops and 11,000 notebooks.

The HP and USAF contract number is FA8771-05-A-0611.