Pentagon Awards $358 Million in Defense Contracts Wednesday

The Department of Defense awarded only six defense contracts Wednesday, worth a total of $358.2 million. Among the publicly traded companies winning contracts:

• Britain's BAE Systems was awarded a $15.2 million contract modification funding the purchase of long lead-time materials needed to manufacture propulsors for the Virginia-class nuclear attack submarines SSN 792 and SSN 793. This contract should be completed by February 2015.
• US Foods, soon to be owned by Sysco , won a sole-source, fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, bridge contract worth up to $72 million to provide "prime vendor food and beverage support" to the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies through Feb. 14, 2015.
• Raytheon won a pair of contracts. The larger, worth up to $98.2 million, was a sole-source, firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to supply the U.S. Army and federal civilian agencies with unspecified "surveillance system spare parts" through Feb. 19, 2017. The smaller contract, a $35.5 million fixed-price-incentive contract, funds the purchase of three AN/AQS-20A sonar mine detecting sets, with ancillary equipment, for use aboard U.S. Navy Littoral Combat Ships. The AN/AQS-20A sonar mine detecting set is a mine hunting and identification system with acoustic and identification sensors housed in an underwater towed body. The acoustic sensors are designed for the detection, classification and localization of bottom, close-tethered, and volume targets in a single pass. The identification sensor is designed for the identification of bottom mines. Delivery of this equipment is due by February 2015, but the contract may be extended with additional "option" exercises. If all options on this contract are exercised, its value would rise to $199.7 million.