The end of the 2014 fiscal year brought a deluge of 93 contracts from the armed services and Defense Department agencies totaling more than $2.9 billion, the Pentagon reported late Tuesday. That included 24 contracts from the Air Force worth a total of $664.8 million. The Defense Logistics Agency topped the charts, spending just over $800 million on 10 contracts for food and beverage supplies, water service, cold weather shelters, and other commodities. The Navy Department, which includes the Marine Corps, issued 31 contracts totaling more than $700 million, the Army issued 24 contracts for about $600 million, US Transportation Command offered three for $64 million, and the Defense Health Agency issued one for $30 million. The top Air Force contracts were $100 million to Lockheed Martin for an unspecified number of Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles and $67.3 million to L-3 Communications for support of the T-1A training aircraft. Lockheed got another contract worth $44.2 million for support of the Space Based Infrared Satellite System. Boeing got three agreements worth just under $94 million for engineering support for a variety of Air Force aircraft and missiles. General Atomics Aeronautical got $38.9 million for MQ-9 Reaper components.
It’s often said commanders have an insatiable appetite for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. When it comes to space, commercial capabilities are helping to at least whet that appetite, Space Force commanders said at the Spacepower Conference this week.