The U.S. Department of Defense announced a total of 21, mostly smallish, new contracts on Wednesday, worth a combined value of $350.8 million. Among others:
- Privately held Hawker Beechcraft won an $18.6 million contract modification to provide "basic life support (BLS) and security" services to the U.S. Air Force in Iraq.
- Erickson Air-Crane (NASDAQ: EAC) subsidiary Evergreen Helicopters won a $6.8 million firm-fixed-price contract to provide search and rescue, med-evac, and passenger and cargo transport services to the U.S. Navy's 5th and 7th Fleets.
- Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH 2.06%) won a $12.1 million contract modification to continue providing management and business operations support services to the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic.
Probably the most interesting of the awards, though, was the $10.1 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification that Northrop Grumman (NOC 0.79%) from DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Northrop won the funds to continue work on developing "critical device and integration technologies necessary to realize compact, high-performance electronic circuits that operate at a center frequency of 1.03 THz." According to DARPA, the 1.03 THz frequency is important because it will permit development of "a host of DoD electronics capabilities such as advanced communication and sensor systems," including new radar systems capable of seeing through clouds "as effectively as today's infrared (IR) sensors operate in clear weather."
