Sikorsky's $1.24 billion deal to begin developing a new fleet of presidential helicopters was the Pentagon's biggest contract last month.
The unit of United Technologies Corp. will supply the Marine Corps with six S-92 aircraft and two training simulators -- the first step in building a 21-chopper fleet over the next decade -- under the sole-source Navy agreement announced on May 7.
The contract topped a list of almost 250 awards announced in May, with a combined potential value of almost $15 billion, according to a Military.com analysis of the Pentagon's daily contract announcements.
The total monthly value fell by more than a third from the same month a year ago and almost half of the average for the previous three months. The figures don't reflect what was actually spent, or obligated, because many deals are only partially funded at first.
Overall, defense contracting is sliding less dramatically. Since the Oct. 1 start of the government’s fiscal year through April, the Pentagon’s outlays in procurement and research and development accounts totaled $103 billion — just a 3-percent decrease from the same period a year earlier, according to last month's financial assessment prepared by the Treasury Department’s Financial Management Service.
A group of seven defense contractors and service companies including Northrop Grumman Corp. and Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. landed seats on the Defense Department's second-largest contract in May, a deal potentially worth $877 million for the Navy's Joint Force Development program.
Specifically, the firms will provide "support for training and real-world operations by offering varying combinations of education (academics), training assessment, experimentation (war-fighting solutions), and infrastructure," according to the May 1 announcement.
A closely held company called Foster Fuels Inc. won the military's third-largest agreement last month, an $853 million contract with the Defense Logistics Agency for fuel, according to the May 6 announcement.
Other noteworthy deals:
Lockheed Martin Corp., the world's largest defense contractor, received a $509 million modification to an Air Force contract to improve the reliability of the C-5 Galaxy transport plane, according to the May 8 announcement.
British defense giant BAE Systems Plc and McLean, Virginia-based Science Applications International Corporation won Navy contracts potentially valued at as much as $206 million to design and develop better protection for the Marine Corps' assault amphibious vehicle personnel carrier, or AAV, according to the May 9 announcement.
