The Department of Defense announced nine new defense contracts, worth $554.1 million in aggregate, Tuesday.
Of these, the largest by far was a win by defense contractor Textron's (TXT 0.26%) AAI unmanned aerial vehicle division. AAI won a contract worth up to $126.3 million to provide logistics and operational support for "Shadow" drones operated in Afghanistan by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, and also the Australian military.
Another big winner of the day was food services company Sysco (SYY 1.50%), whose Sysco Seattle division won two contracts -- a $51 million contract to perform "full line" food service distribution to U.S. Navy bases in Washington State through Nov. 3, 2014, and a $15.8 million contract to perform similar services to Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard locations in both Washington State and Alaska, also through Nov. 3, 2014.
Other awards went to defense contractors BAE Systems (BAES.Y 2.24%) and ManTech (MANT). BAE won a $21.6 million contract to produce and service Evolved Seasparrow Missiles, NATO Seasparrow Surface Missile Systems, and Stalker Long Range Electro-Optical Sensor Suites for the 12 nations that comprise the NATO Seasparrow Consortium through October 2015. ManTech won a contract worth up to $85 million to support military readiness activities for U.S. Pacific Fleet and other users in the Pacific Ocean and the western U.S. This latter contract is not to exceed seven years in duration, and is expected to wrap up in October 2020.
