General Dynamics (GD +0.41%) won a $67.4 million Pentagon contract Thursday, the Pentagon has just confirmed. Curiously, though, the General Dynamics division that won the award may soon not exist -- at least not independently.
Last week, as you may recall, General Dynamics announced plans to merge its Armament and Technical Products business into its Ordnance and Tactical Systems unit. Regardless, the Pentagon announced Thursday that it is exercising an option attached to an existing contract with the soon-to-disappear General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products unit.
Pursuant to this option, General Dynamics will supply an unspecified number of hydra rockets, warheads, and related parts to the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force, and also to the government of Saudi Arabia. The Pentagon's contract announcement noted that the cumulative total face value of this contract has now risen past $1 billion, thanks to this award.
Generally fired from rocket launchers aboard combat aircraft and helicopters, the hydra rocket is a low-cost, 70mm munition comprising a MK66 MOD 4 rocket motor, one of nine possible warheads, and one or more fuzes to set them off. The high degree of modifiability of the rocket makes the hydra "a tailor-made solution to the warfighter's situation requirements," says General Dynamics.
