A group of closely held companies received the Defense Department's biggest contract last month, a potentially $10 billion award for special operations equipment and services.
The six companies, including Harrisonburg, Va.-based Tactical & Survival Specialties Inc. and Wellington, Fla.-based Source One Distributors Inc., beat out more than a dozen other firms for the potentially five-year contract from the Defense Logistics Agency, according to the March 7 announcement.
The agreement is for the "special operational equipment tailored logistics support program," which is used by both military services and civilian agencies, the announcement states. It will provide tactical and protective gear, search and rescue equipment, safety items, diving and mountain climbing products and more.
"The program maximum allows for support in the event of increased demand for items critical to the Defense Department's ability to conduct contingency and/or emergency peacetime operations," Tonya Johnson, an agency spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.
The contract topped a list of almost 250 awards announced in March, with a combined potential value of nearly $35 billion, according to a Military.com analysis of the Pentagon’s daily contract announcements.
The total monthly value was almost triple that of February, as contracting activity picked up after a couple of months of record- or near-record lows amid debate over the federal budget and automatic cuts known as sequestration. The figures don’t reflect what is actually spent, or obligated, because many deals are only partially funded at first.
Another group of companies won the second-largest Pentagon contract in March.
A dozen firms, including Falls Church, Va.-based Centech Group Inc., shared a potential $5.8 billion, seven-year contract from the Air Force to provide information-technology services under the so-called Network-Centric Solutions-2 program, known as Netcents-2, according to the March 27 announcement.
Under these kinds of arrangements, known as multiple-award contracts, companies win seats on the contract, then compete against each other for individual orders.
A unit of the German engineering conglomerate Siemens AG landed the third-largest defense contract last month and the largest awarded to a single company, a $1.8 billion deal for "radiology systems, subsystems, accessories, service, and repair and parts," according to the March 26 announcement.
U.S. shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., received the fourth-largest military contract in March, a $1.3 billion agreement for work related to the construction of USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) aircraft carrier, slated to be commissioned in 2020, according to the March 4 announcement.
Boeing Co., the world's largest aerospace company, took the fifth-largest Pentagon contract in March, a $1.2 billion deal for more production of AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, according to the March 4 announcement. The agreement calls for 72 newly rebuilt choppers and 10 new helos, among other items.
(Story was updated to include additional details and quote from spokeswoman in third and fourth paragraphs.)
Associate Editor Brendan McGarry can be reached at brendan.mcgarry@monster.com.
