The Department of Defense issued 14 new contracts on Wednesday worth $228.5 million combined. About half the contracts issued benefited the U.S. Army, and although most of the awards went to privately held firms, two of them didn't. The two publicly traded companies benefiting from the Army's business were:
- Britain's BAE Systems (BAESY 1.88%) (LSE: BA), awarded $30.7 million in modification of a contract to perform engineering, design, logistics, and testing in support of a proposal to upgrade the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, which BAE builds.
- General Dynamics (GD 0.72%), awarded $18.7 million in modification of a July contract for the purchase of Hydra rockets. This modification will reduce the per-unit price on Hydra rockets that the Pentagon is buying for the Army, Navy, Air Force, and allied foreign military buyers, presumably -- although the DOD did not specifically state this -- by increasing the number of rockets being purchased, thus spreading out costs over a larger number of units.
Also awarded Wednesday was a $25.3 million contract going to medical products distributor Henry Schein (HSIC 2.58%). The Defense Logistics Agency, Troop Support, is increasing the value of a contract it has with Schein to distribute "a wide range of general dental supplies to all contiguous United States and outside contiguous United States facilities that participate in the Dental Electronic Catalog (ECAT) program." This contract will now run through July 15, 2014, and will benefit U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agency buyers.
