MIDDLETOWN, R.I., June 20 -- KVH Industries Inc. has received a five-year $17 million contract from the US Army to supply TACNAV systems and components for Army, Marine Corps and foreign combat vehicles. This comes soon after a similar $13 million multi-year contract between KVH Industries and the Army. Navigation and pointing capabilities have become a necessity rather than an option for mobile combat troops, said Martin Kits van Heyningen, KVH president and CEO. As a result, demand for our TACNAV tactical navigation systems is increasing to keep pace with military fleet modernization in the US and other countries. We expect the demand for all TACNAV products to continue escalating as military upgrades gather momentum. TACNAV systems are more dependable than Global Positioning Systems (GPS) alone, said KVH Industries. They do not lose data if hostile activity or physical interference should interrupt global positioning system signals. TACNAV systems combine heading and position data with information from the GPS, guaranteeing that important data is always available and with a better level of precision than GPS systems alone.