The Department of Defense ended the week with a bang (if you'll pardon the expression) Friday. Across a field of 26 contracts awarded, the Pentagon laid out plans to pay some of its favorite contractors nearly $2.5 billion in total. Among the biggest winners of the day, though, was an unlikely recipient -- British defense contracting giant BAE Systems (BAES.Y 2.33%).
BAE won two contracts outright Friday, and a big piece of a third. That one, a $166.3 million deal, will be shared between BAE / Rockwell Collins (COL) joint venture Data Link Solutions and ViaSat (VSAT 8.00%). The "multiple award contract" exercises an option to order additional systems engineering and integration work on the military's Multifunctional Information Distribution System (MIDS), Low Volume Terminal (LVT), and MIDS Joint Tactical Radio Systems (JTRS) terminal.
DoD describes MIDS-LVT as providing "secure, high-capacity, jam-resistant, digital data and voice communications capability for Navy, Air Force and Army platforms. Work on this option period of the contract is expected to be complete by March 9, 2014.
As for BAE's other wins, the contractor received an award for:
- $89.5 million: exercising the first option year period on a contract to supply Enhanced Small Arms Protective Inserts -- ceramic plates integrated into troops' body armor to make them more resistant to small arms fire. BAE is to supply these ESAPI plates to its Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps customers by July 2, 2014.
- $40.3 million in the form of a firm-fixed-price contract to supply MK 41 Vertical Launching System canisters -- the containers housing MK 14 MOD 2 Tomahawk, MK 21 MOD 2 SM-3, MK 21 MOD 3 SM-6, and MK 25 MOD 0 SeaSparrow missiles before they are launched. These canisters provide rocket motor exhaust gas containment and serve as a launch rail during missile firing. They can also serve as missile shipping and storage containers. BAE should complete delivery on this contract by July 2015.
