The Department of Defense awarded a total of only five defense contracts Wednesday, worth $117.5 million combined.
The largest of these contracts went to privately held "drone" specialist General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, recipient of a $57.5 million delivery order to supply the U.S. Air Force with 234 Ground Control Station kits; seven containerized dual control segment kits; 25 Squadron Operations Center, or SOC, low density kits; five Creech SOC low density kits; six Creech SOC high density kits; 24 relay kits; 71 relay circuit to packet kits; three Creech wide-area network, or WAN, kits; one Cannon WAN kit; 26 WAN LD kits; two Cannon SOC kits; 17 relay rack kits; 10 network management kits; and related spares and support equipment -- all equipment used to remotely control unmanned aerial vehicles manufactured by the company. Delivery is due Dec. 17, 2015.
As for publicly traded firms, only one won a contract today, Bell Helicopter Textron (TXT 0.56%). Textron's award, a $12.3 million contract modification, calls upon the company to supply hardware and software upgrades for the U.S. Marine Corps' H-1 Upgrade Program, and to perform software and hardware upgrades on Marine Corps "Huey" helicopters by December.
