Pentagon Awards Contracts for Battery Supply, HVAC Work

The Department of Defense awarded 13 defense contracts Friday, worth a total of up to $590.4 million. Among the winners:

• Battery manufacturer EnerSys won a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract worth up to $40.3 million to supply the U.S. Army with storage batteries. This three-year contract will run through Feb. 20, 2017, and will not be extended.
• Rival battery manufacturer Exide Technologies won a similar, but smaller, fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract worth up to $18.5 million, also for storage batteries, and also with the U.S. Army being the buyer. This contract will also run through Feb. 20, 2017 and will not be extended. The curious thing about this one is that the company actually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection back in June.
• Johnson Controls won a contract -- but although Johnson makes batteries, its contract is not for batteries. Instead, the company's York International Corp subsidiary has won an $11.1 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee/firm-fixed-price contract to perform research and development work, testing, and evaluation on shipboard air conditioning and refrigeration modernization programs for the U.S. Navy. This contract is expected to be complete by February 2017.