The Department of Defense awarded Textron (TXT -1.33%) subsidiary AAI a $19.6 million contract Monday for the supply of Universal Test Sets to the U.S. Navy's Explosive Ordnance Division.

An important part of the Counter Remote Control Improvised Explosive Device (RCIED) Electronic Warfare, or CREW, system, the Universal Test Set (UTS) is used to confirm that electronic jamming equipment, used by Marines to prevent a signal getting through to detonate an improvised explosive device, is operational.

Monday's contract is a modification to previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to supply the Navy with both UTS and spare parts for the system. It follows a similar contract award, which expired in Sept. 2011, for UTS production that was worth $35.8 million. That contract was in turn a modification of yet another award for the systems' supply.

The Pentagon did not give a cumulative figure for the value of all these "modified" versions of the original contract, but the cumulative value has already passed $55 million.