The Department of Defense awarded 14 defense contracts in its Thursday evening announcement of contract awards. The total value of contracts awarded was $526.7 million. Boeing (BA 0.50%) won two of these, including the biggest contract of the day.
Boeing's big win was a $103.8 million firm-fixed-price contract that will fund the purchase of long-lead items needed to build Full Rate Production Lot 5 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters on order for the U.S. Army. The Army is currently engaged in a project to build new AH-64Es, and upgrade existing Apaches to the latest AH-64E configuration, which will see 634 AH-64Es produced when all is said and done. This current contract for Production Lot 5 is expected to run through Dec. 31, 2014.
Boeing's soon-to-be-upgraded AH-64D Apache. Photo: Boeing.
Additionally, Boeing won an $8.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order to perform software updates on U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon submarine-hunting aircraft. The Navy is expected to buy a total of 117 Poseidons from Boeing. Earlier this year, the Navy placed an order for Boeing to supply it with 16 Poseidons for a purchase cost of $2.07 billion. Delivery of those aircraft is due in April 2017. This current contract for software upgrades should be completed by August 2015.
Boeing's P-8A Poseidon. Source: U.S. Navy
