didn't us army terminate recon/eos contract ??, page-2

Good point rs61 - lets not get carried away - this is not a solicitation at this point but it demonstrates the importance and size of the market that EOS operates in.

Just to clarify, CROWS II was put out to competitive tender. Recon and 2 others made it through to phase 2 of the tender process which Recon then lost.

Yes, the GAO report was scathing on Recon and their bid proposal. As prime contractor this was something that they (Recon) stuffed up. I would be interested to know EOS level of involvement in the bid proposal but I suspect that it was little given that they were a subcontractor to Recon. This is something where EOS probably stuffed up i.e did not have more involvement in the process??.

Regarding bad blood - well, Recon is no more. The majority of the business was purchased by another company a while back (http://www.photonics.com/Content/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=34970) and EOS is currently trying to tie up the purchase of the remainder (as per the Annual report).

Whats changed since then? Alot.

EOS has a whole new weapon suite with technologies that its competitions don't appear to have. This is an excerpt from the recent Australian article which is worth noting:

"EOS argues this time it's different: a next-G product suite called (you guessed it) CROWS2 includes you-beaut upgrades such as sniper detection, auto-tracking and built-in diagnostics to ease the burden of warfare.

EOS chief Ben Greene said US authorities made it clear that EOS missed out last time because of issues with the company's prime contractor, not EOS itself: "We have very good products. We know we are in good standing with the army and we know we are competitive."

Greene is also confident because the army is unlikely to award all of the work to one contractor, for risk and product diversity reasons"

Guess you have to take the CEO's word on that. They have also stated (read recent military business update) that they have been actively re-positioning themselves since 2007 in anticipation of this. I imagine that they learnt allot from 2007 & I agree that they will need to partner more effectively this time.

By the way, what are the financial standings required to meet US acceptable contractor status? EOS has limited debt, inventory on hand and cash in the bank....

willo