With each passing day, it seems, the Department of Defense is breaking new records for spending. On Thursday, the Pentagon set its fourth such record of the week, announcing a staggering 86 separate contract awards worth $7.55 billion.
Of these contracts, Lockheed Martin (LMT -0.25%) won three, hands down, and most of a fourth:
- A $15 million delivery order to conduct repairs on five "items" related to Navy H60-family helicopters by Sept. 30, 2014.
- A $7.2 million firm-fixed-price delivery order to repair 12 other "items," all related to the Common Cockpit for H60 helicopters. This contract is to be completed a bit later -- April 30, 2015.
- Separately, a firm-fixed-price contract worth up to $10.9 million to supply "countermeasure receivers" to the U.S. Air Force by March 31, 2015.
Lockheed's big win of the day, however, went to its Hellfire Systems, LLC, subsidiary, which started out as a joint venture between Lockheed and Boeing (BA -1.43%), but is now owned solely by Lockheed. Hellfire Systems was awarded a $248.7 million modification to a partial-foreign military sales contract, which requires it to supply 3,318 Hellfire II air-to-ground missiles, in containers, to the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force, and also to customers in Australia, Korea, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the Netherlands.
Lockheed will collect most of the funds paid it under this contract. However, at last report, Boeing was still receiving residual "fee-per-missile" payments for missiles sold by the LLC as payment for its historical role in the joint venture.
