The Department of Defense issued 12 new contracts Friday, worth a combined $521.1 million. Most of the money went to privately held firms today, some manufacturing uniforms for servicemen and women, and others to pay for construction and dredging work. But a few awards to publicly traded companies do stand out:
- The biggest contract let out to a traditional "defense contractor" was the $94.3 million awarded to Britain's BAE Systems (BAES.Y 1.32%) to fund the purchase of advanced radar warning receiver ship sets and line replaceable units for the U.S. Air Force -- and potentially for the militaries of Australia, Canada, Egypt, Korea, Norway, and Poland, as well. BAE will be working on this contract through December 5, 2018.
- Radiological medical equipment maker Hologic (HOLX -0.62%) won a $32.3-million contract modification exercising an option to have it produce ThinPrep Pap test kits and related supplies for the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. This contract has a Sept. 30, 2014 completion date.
- A second medical contract went to Quest Diagnostics (DGX 0.62%), hiring it to perform $18 million worth of laboratory testing for servicemen and women, and for their dependents.
- Northrop Grumman (NOC -0.02%) won a $10-million contract modification to perform additional work in support of the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance-Demonstrator, Unmanned Aircraft System, also known as the Global Hawk Maritime-Demonstrator. The Pentagon notes that it is increasing the "operational tempo" of test flights on the BAMS-D, running 15 missions per month -- a 67% increase from previous expectations of flying nine missions per month. This contract now runs through May 2014.
