The Department of Defense awarded $2.2 billion worth of defense contracts in its Thursday evening announcement of contract awards, released after stock markets closed for the day, handing out 17 separate contract awards. Defense contractor Northrop Grumman (NOC -0.02%) won four of them.
Northrop's biggest win was a $63.1 million contract modification funding continuation into Phase II of post-demonstration activities in support of the U.S. Navy's Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) program. Northrop will continue to support the X-47B drones it has already provided to the Navy, including through flight testing both on shore and at sea, through March 2015.
Northrop Grumman's X-47B unmanned, carrier-borne combat drone. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
The defense contractor's other wins included:
- A $15.2 million firm-fixed-price contract to repair AN/ALQ-135 Electronic Countermeasures Systems for Saudi Arabia. This sole-source, 100%-foreign military sales contract will run through June 25, 2015.
- A $15 million contract modification to perform additional research and development work on the U.S. Army's Advanced Electronic Protect, Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) System of Systems capability, and the IAMD Battle Command System, continuing to move the project through development and into the demonstration phase. The Army describes the IAMD project as combining sensors and weapons including "Improved Sentinel, PATRIOT radars, PATRIOT launchers and the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor (JLENS)" into a single, integrated, "plug and fight" system for air defense. This contract will now continue to run through at least Sept. 30, 2015, after which the Army anticipates making a decision on whether to proceed to production and deployment.
- An $8.2 million ceiling-priced delivery order to repair 51 line items relating to the Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning system installed on U.S. Navy E-2D AEW aircraft. These repairs should be completed by June 25, 2015.
