The Department of Defense counted its pennies carefully Wednesday, awarding only about $613 million in contracts to private industry. One company in particular, though, walked away with the lion's share of the awards: Lockheed Martin (LMT -0.75%).
In a single contract valued at $138.5 million, Lockheed collected 22.5% of all funds on offer Wednesday. In exchange, the company will provide Communications Technical Support Services, or CTSS, to the U.S. Air Force Central Command from Sept. 21 of this year through Sept. 20, 2014 -- and perhaps longer. Lockheed's contract contains the possibility of an optional three-month extension, which, if exercised, will extend the contract through Dec. 20, 2014.
On its website, Lockheed describes the CTSS program as being aimed at supplying "critical information" to forward-deployed forces supporting Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), Operation New Dawn (Iraq), and other military deployments, "primarily in Southwest Asia."
