25 Billion in Gov. Contrat $$$ coming...
will any hit SSPX? SFLK?
Regards -- SAM
Pentagon to Award $25 Bln in Contracts
Monday April 19, 6:34 pm ET
By Andrea Shalal-Esa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is poised to award defense contracts valued at over $25 billion in the next few months, including a $6 billion deal to build the Army's next spy plane expected in early May.
Top U.S. defense firms are vying for major military jobs such as building a new U.S. Navy ship, a joint missile and a satellite communications system -- all of which focus on joint use by military services, communications and intelligence operations.
Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, a Virginia-based think tank, said the new weapons programs "are mostly about transforming the military by creating a networked force that does business in completely different ways."
Following deep cuts in the early 1990s, after the end of the Cold War, U.S. defense spending is now about 32 percent above its level in 1998, and the George W. Bush (News) administration is projecting further increases through the end of the decade.
Many of the contracts, due in coming months, aim to bring U.S. military platforms into the high-speed information age.
Defense analyst Joe Nadol at JP Morgan said Lockheed is involved in six of the biggest competitions, twice as many as any other contractor, and looked likely to win two or three.
-- A Pentagon acquisition panel will decide on April 22 whether to give initial approval for production of the Joint Common Missile (JCM), to replace Hellfire and Maverick missiles on Army, Navy and Marine Corps planes and helicopters.
That decision will pave the way for the Pentagon to award a contract in late May valued at around $6 billion to one of three industry teams: Chicago-based Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA - News), teamed with Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC - News), is competing against teams from Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT - News) and Raytheon Co. (NYSE:RTN - News).
-- In early May, the Army will award a multibillion-dollar contract for its next-generation airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) system, which will also replace the Navy's aging EP-3 surveillance aircraft.
Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed is vying with Northrop for the initial $670 million Aerial Common Sensor contract, with analysts putting the total program value at $6 billion.
-- The Army and Air Force are also nearing a decision on two segments of a program for software programmable radios with voice, data, imagery and video communications capability, or Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS).
In April, they are expected to award a contract valued at up to $3 billion either to General Dynamics or ITT Industries Inc. (NYSE:ITT - News). In May, they will pick two of three companies vying for an additional $4 billion of that project.
-- In late May, the Navy is due to choose one or two firms to keep designing the new Littoral Combat System, a small, stealthy ship for anti-mine, intelligence and spy missions.
Nadol said the Navy is favoring the Lockheed design over those of General Dynamics, based in Falls Church, Virginia, and Waltham-Massachusetts-based Raytheon.
-- In early June, the Navy is expected to award a $3.7 billion contract for replacement of its aging P-3 surveillance aircraft. Lockheed is offering a system based on a variant of the P-3 airframe, while Boeing has based its solution for the Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) on its 737 aircraft.
-- Also in June, the Navy will award a contract worth over $2 billion for a new narrowband tactical satellite communications system*, or Mobile User Objective System (MUOS).
Lockheed has teamed with Boeing and General Dynamics to bid against Raytheon, which has partnered with bankrupt Loral Space and Communications Ltd. (OTC BB:LRLSQ.OB - News).
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*EAG has ORB and deal with General Dynamics ... hmmmm.
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