Three defense contactors -- Lockheed Martin (LMT -0.27%), Northrop Grumman (NOC 0.79%), and Britain's BAE Systems (BAES.Y 2.33%) (LSE: BA) -- won two contracts apiece in the Department of Defense announcement of defense contracts Thursday evening.

Lockheed Martin was awarded:

  • A $57.9 million contract modification exercising options to perform technical engineering, configuration management, and other operational and maintenance work on U.S. Navy development and test sites for the Aegis air defense system. This work will continue through at least June 2015.
  • An $11.6 million contract modification to complete work on an engineering change proposal for upgrading 12 P-3C sub-hunting aircraft for the Government of Taiwan under the Foreign Military Sales program. Lockheed will be upgrading the planes' Link-11 secure radio systems and Advanced Tactical Data Links to provide high-speed computer-to-computer digital radio capability. This work should be completed by September 2015.


P-3C Orions of Patrol Squadron Two Six (VP-26) in Italy. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Northrop Grumman was awarded:

  • An $89.7 million contract modification exercising an option contract line item to continue supporting U.S. Air Force E-11A and EQ-4B Battlefield Airborne Communications Nodes (BACN). BACNs are airborne communications relays. In this case, four Air Force E-11A piloted aircraft based out of Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan, and three drone EQ-4B Block 20 aircraft based at an overseas location that was not named, are the subjects of the contract. Northrop's work on these BACNs will continue through at least June 22, 2015. The cumulative value of this contract to Northrop Grumman now exceeds $1.2 billion.
  • A smaller $8.6 million job order to perform engineering work at the U.S. Navy AN/ALQ-218(V)2 Tactical Jamming System repair depot at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane, Ind. This work will continue through June 2017.

BAE Systems was awarded:

  • A $9.8 million contract modification to pre-position supplies needed to operate and maintain U.S. Army Bradley armored personnel carriers in Kuwait through Aug. 31, 2014.
  • A $7.8 million task order to perform 84 standardized maintenance and repair operations on U.S. Navy MK 38 Machine Gun Systems for ships in port through June 2017.