The U.S. Department of Defense announced a dozen contract awards on Wednesday worth $541.2 million in combined value. Britain's BAE Systems took the top prize with a $150 million contract to produce HERCULES tank salvage vehicles for the Army. Among the other winners:
- General Electric (GE +2.10%) was awarded a firm-fixed price, no option, non-multiyear foreign military sales contract worth up to $57.5 million to supply the U.S. Army and the Republic of Korea with 72 T700-GE-701D engines (with extended warranties, no less), plus four spares. The T700-GE-701D is the latest version of GE's T700 engine and is used to power Boeing Apache and Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters.
- Finmeccanica (FINMY 0.29%) subsidiary DRS Tactical Systems won a five-year, firm-fixed-price, sole-source contract worth up to $61.6 million to support the Defense Logistics Agency's Force Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) program through Aug. 20, 2018. Described as a "situational awareness and command and control system," FBCB2 aims to bring the U.S. Army into the 21st century by replacing the use of paper maps and voice radio communications with digital capabilities. DRS is developing "ultra-rugged" computer systems to display this data.
- L-3 Communications (LLL +0.00%) has been awarded an $18.5 million contract modification to continue work on the M6.2+ Operational Flight Program for use at the F-16 Mission Training Center through May 31, 2016. The Pentagon notes that this modification brings the cumulative value of L-3's underlying contract to $316.5 million.
- Science Applications International Corp., commonly known as SAIC (NYSE: SAI), has been awarded one of two indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts adding up to an "overall ceiling" value of $16.2 million. Together with Signal Innovations Group, a subsidiary of Central Intelligence Agency-run private equity firm In-Q-Tel, SAIC will work on the Object Physics for Exploitation and Recognition (OPERA) project, aiming to "isolate and model physical mechanisms responsible for exploitation performance earlier in the exploitation development process." Although the two figures fall $1 million short of the stated overall ceiling value, SAIC's OPERA contract has a stated price ceiling of $9.3 million. In-Q-Tel's top value is $5.9 million.
