Britain to award U.S. firm Leidos military logistics contract

[February 19, 2015]  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said it would award a contract to run military logistics to Leidos Holdings Inc, a U.S. company specializing in defense and health services, as part of a plan to save 500 million pounds ($772 million) over 13 years.

The country's Ministry of Defense (MOD) is outsourcing activities such as managing inventory and military equipment buying to save money and help reduce a record budget deficit.

The MOD on Thursday named Leidos as preferred bidder for the Logistics Commodities and Services program and said the deal would improve efficiency in procurement and stock control of food, clothing and other supplies, adding that Leidos would build a new fulfillment center.

"Today's announcement will deliver state of the art warehousing systems to improve availability of supplies and better management of inventory for the Armed Forces," Minister for Defense Equipment Philip Dunne said in a statement.

The MOD said that there were a number of steps to go before the contract was finalised.

(Reporting by Sarah Young, Editing by Paul Sandle)

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