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Tag: GovCon

Northrop Grumman subsidiary scores $3.5B Navy contract

Northrop Grumman Systems, a subsidiary of Falls Church aerospace and defense giant Northrop Grumman, has been awarded a $3.549 billion contract by the Navy to engineer and manufacture new nuclear aircraft, according to announcements from the Department of Defense and the Navy last week.

E-130J jets will take the place of the Navy’s current E-6B Mercury fleet for “take charge and move out” (TACAMO), a military mission to mobilize and maintain critical decision-making communications systems, including airborne communications, in the event of nuclear war. The Mercury aircraft provides airborne command, control and communications between the National Command Authority and U.S. nuclear forces. Work began on Dec. 18, according to the Navy.

Under the contract, NGS will serve as prime contractor to integrate the TACAMO mission systems into up to six C-130J-30 air vehicles built by Lockheed Martin.

“Today is a tremendous day for the future of naval aviation’s contribution to our nation’s nuclear deterrence mission,” said Capt. Adam Scott, program manager for the Navy’s Airborne Strategic Command, Control and Communications Program Office. “With the selection of Northrop Grumman Systems as the prime contractor for the TACAMO recapitalization program, we are ready to move out with developing this critical asset. In carrying on the legacy of the E-6B Mercury, the E-130J will ensure our nation’s leadership is always connected to its nuclear forces for decades to come.”

The U.S. Department of Defense announcement says that work will primarily be performed in Florida, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma and Indiana, among other U.S. locations, and it is expected to be completed in December 2034. Collins Aerospace and Lockheed Martin will be designated subcontractors on the project.

 

GDIT wins $5.57B contract to upgrade military communications system

Falls Church-based General Dynamics Information Technology, a business unit of Reston Fortune 100 defense contractor General Dynamics, has won a $5.57 billion contract from the Air Force Mission Partner Capabilities Office, it announced Friday.

Awarded in November, the single-award, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract has a five-year base period and a five-year option, according to GDIT’s announcement. The business unit will modernize and operate the Department of Defense’s mission partner environment (MPE), which will “enable the military and its trusted partners to securely communicate, collaborate and share information at multiple levels of classification in real time” during military missions.

“The complexity of global threats necessitates the urgency to create agile, secure and seamless information-sharing environments with our trusted partners,” GDIT President Amy Gilliland said in a statement. “We look forward to implementing an integrated Mission Partner Environment that will serve as a blueprint for future efforts across the Department of Defense.”

Work will be performed in the Washington, D.C., area, as well as in Tampa, Florida; Hawaii and the United Kingdom, according to the DOD announcement, and work is expected to be completed by December 2035.

GDIT has more than three decades of experience in designing and operating MPE programs worldwide, including a network for the Army’s European and African outposts. The company employs about 30,000 employees in 30 countries, and reported $8.5 billion in revenue for 2023.

Leidos lands $987M Air Force contract

Leidos has won an up to $987 million Air Force contract to provide sustainment support for F-16 Foreign Military Sales customers, the Reston-based Fortune 500 federal contractor announced Thursday.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a supersonic multirole fighter aircraft used for air-to-air combat and air-to-surface attack. General Dynamics initially developed the F-16 before selling its aircraft manufacturing business to Lockheed Corp., which became Lockheed Martin.

Under the indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract, Leidos will provide post-production support for the F-16 weapon system’s continued operation and improvement.

The contractor will provide repair and return, engineering and technical services, and analysis and resolution support for diminishing manufacturing support and material shortages, according to the Department of Defense’s Dec. 11 award announcement. The contract includes sales to Taiwan.

“We leveraged our corporate investments in AI and predictive analytics to provide our customer with a data-informed platform to increase efficiency, visibility and accountability,” Roy Stevens, Leidos’ National Security Sector president, said in a statement.

Work will be performed in Reston and is expected to be completed by May 31, 2034.

More than 25 nations have procured the F-16, creating a global fleet size of about 2,200 active aircraft.

Leidos provides technology, engineering and science services to defense, intelligence, civil and health market customers. It has about 48,000 employees and reported approximately $15.4 billion in 2023 revenue.

McLean’s QinetiQ US expands to Huntsville, Alabama

QinetiQ US, a McLean security and defense contractor, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday to celebrate its expansion into Huntsville, Alabama.

Known as “The Rocket City” for its role in the country’s development of space exploration, Huntsville is home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, which is located at the Redstone Arsenal. Originally established to make ammunition and chemicals during World War II, the arsenal later became the U.S. Army’s center for its missile and rocket program. More than 300 companies have offices at the nearby Cummings Research Park in Huntsville including Lockheed Martin, Akima and General Dynamics Mission Systems.

The new QinetiQ US office is located on 4100 Market St. in Huntsville.

Adults stand behind a red ribbon. One woman holds oversized scissors.
Shawn Purvis, president and CEO of QinetiQ US (holding scissors), and others celebrated the opening of the company’s Alabama office in December 2024. Photo courtesy QinetiQ US.

“Our Huntsville office provides an initial footprint next to the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal that will support our growing team and customer needs,” Anton Pototski, a spokesperson for the company, wrote in an email. “We are positioned to scale our presence as we continue to expand in the region.”

QinetiQ has a core team established in Huntsville and is actively hiring positions in systems engineering, software development, cybersecurity, robotics engineering and program management, Potoski stated when asked the number of workers the company plans to employ in Alabama.

QinetiQ declined to provide the cost of the expansion. “…This expansion represents a significant strategic commitment to the Huntsville market and our growing customer base in the region,” Potoski wrote. 

In addition to the QinetiQ US headquarters in McLean, the company has “various locations across Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, Colorado and North Carolina,” according to Potoski. 

The expansion follows an October announcement that the U.S. Army Contracting Command had awarded QinetiQ US a multiple-award, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract that has an estimated ceiling of $95 million to support the U.S. Army’s Threat Systems Management Office at the Redstone Arsenal.

“For over 30 years, QinetiQ has been a leader in providing realistic threat representation through our advanced target systems and comprehensive support services,” Shawn N. Purvis, president and CEO of QinetiQ US, said in a statement. “By establishing a presence in Rocket City, we’re bringing this legacy of service and innovation to support the warfighter with cutting-edge solutions across multi-domain autonomous systems, ISR, mission operations and data and digital solutions. This expansion underscores our commitment to delivering mission-led innovation in this growing hub of aerospace and defense activity, further enhancing our ability to address complex challenges faced by defense and national security organizations.”

The QinetiQ US sector, which has more than 1,400 employees, reported $1.3 billion in total contract awards during fiscal year 2024. Its United Kingdom-based parent company, QinetiQ Group PLC, has about 8,500 employees.

ECS Federal wins $96M award to support health research funding agency

A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agency has named ECS Federal as the prime contractor on a four-year, $96 million contract to provide support services, the Fairfax County IT business announced Tuesday.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) was created in 2022 to improve the government’s ability to quickly develop biomedical and health solutions.

Under the contract, ECS will provide programmatic support services, including thought leadership in areas like biotechnology and regenerative medicine, to two ARPA-H mission offices: Health Science Futures (HSF), which works to eradicate limitations that stymie progress with health developments, and Scalable Solutions (SSO), which tackles challenges to developing health solutions like geography and economies of scale.

“We are excited to provide foundational support to HSF and SSO, help drive health care system innovation, and act as a health transformation agent,” John Heneghan, president of ECS, said in a statement.

Additionally, ECS will help HSF and SSO address scalability challenges with access to health care and equity, as well as the global supply chain. The company, a subsidiary of Glen Allen-based Fortune 1000 IT and professional staffing services firm ASGN, will also provide strategic planning and advisory support services, including program and financial management.

In March, ECS, which has about 4,000 employees, announced it was one of five companies awarded a potential $500 million indefinite-delivery, indefinite quantity Strategic Technical ARPA-H Talent Support Contract vehicle.

ASGN reported revenue of $4.45 billion in fiscal year 2023.

HII division lands $6.7B Air Force contract

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries’ McLean-based Mission Technologies division a $6.7 billion contract to provide electronic warfare engineering and technical services support, according to a Thursday announcement from the defense contractor. 

The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract is the largest Mission Technologies has yet landed, according to HII. 

“We have a team of subject matter experts with deep expertise in all aspects of electromagnetic spectrum and electronic warfare, and we are committed to staying a step ahead of our adversaries alongside our customers as the complexity of warfare changes,” Andy Green, HII executive vice president and president of Mission Technologies, said in a statement.

Additionally, HII announced Wednesday that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of W International SC and Vivid Empire SC. Collectively known as W International, the South Carolina complex metal fabricator specializes in manufacturing shipbuilding structures, modules and assemblies.

Aerial shot of manufacturing facility that sits next to water.
W International facility in South Carolina. Photo courtesy HII.

A spokesperson for HII declined to provide terms of the deal. 

After the acquisition closes, the manufacturing facility in Goose Creek, South Carolina, will operate within HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division. The site will support construction of nuclear-powered submarine and aircraft carrier modules and structures for U.S. Navy programs. NNS is one of only two U.S. shipyards capable of designing and building nuclear‐powered submarines.

“Substantially all current employees will be offered positions with HII to continue to work on-site,” the release stated.

“HII is committed to increasing build rates for our Navy customer, and this investment in capacity alongside the Navy will help us do that,” said HII President and CEO Chris Kastner. “It lets us efficiently add trained talent and state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities to the urgent job of building ships.”

The acquired assets include advanced production facilities that are located on a leased 45-acre site with more than 480,000 square feet of manufacturing space as well as barge and rail access.

The facility in South Carolina will be known as Newport News Shipbuilding – Charleston Operations.

Matt Needy, currently Newport News Shipbuilding’s vice president and chief transformation officer, will become general manager of the site. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024, subject to regulatory approvals and other factors.

Newport News-based HII is the nation’s largest military shipbuilder and the largest industrial employer in Virginia. The Fortune 500 company employs more than 44,000 workers. The Mission Technologies division has more than 7,000 employees and more than 100 facilities globally. HII reported $11.5 billion in revenues for 2023.

Navy awards Raytheon potential $903.9M contract

The Navy has awarded Raytheon, a subsidiary of Arlington County Fortune 500 aerospace and defense contractor RTX, a contract worth up to $903.9 million, if all options are exercised, to provide support for a sensor system, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Monday. 

The initial $34 million firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost only contract covers design, development, integration, test and maintenance of system capabilities for the design agent and engineering support efforts for the Cooperative Engagement Capabilities (CEC) sensor system. CEC allows data from sensors in different places to provide a single integrated picture, meaning multiple ships, aircraft and land units can share radar target measurements simultaneously in real time.

Purchases for the U.S. Navy makes up 65% of the contract. The contract also includes purchases for the governments of Japan (15%), Australia (13%), Canada (6%) and Germany (1%) under the Foreign Military Sales program, which allows the United States’ international partners to purchase defense equipment and services. 

The U.S. Navy will pay $20.54 million of the contract, with $1.7 million coming from the United States Marine Corps. The governments of Japan, Australia, Canada and Germany will pay about $11.8 million with the contract. About $2.89 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. 

Work will be performed in St. Petersburg and Largo, Florida as well as Maynard, Massachusetts. Work is expected to be completed by November 2025. If all options are exercised, work will continue through November 2029.

Last week, the Navy awarded Raytheon a $590.8 million contract to produce nine Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band (NGJ-MB) ship sets for the military branch’s EA-18 Growler electronic warfare aircraft and four more sets for the Royal Australian Air Force. The NGJ-MB is an electronic attack system.

With more than 185,000 employees globally, RTX reported $68.9 billion in sales in 2023. Raytheon is also based in Arlington.

BAE Systems wins up to $238M Navy ship repair contract

Falls Church-based federal contractor BAE Systems Inc. has won a Navy contract worth up to $238.8 million to maintain, modernize and repair a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship.

The Department of Defense announced the $212 million firm-fixed-price contract award, which has options that would bring its cumulative value to $238.8 million, to the U.S. arm of British defense giant BAE Systems on Nov. 25.

BAE Systems Inc.’s San Diego Ship Repair unit will work on the USS Green Bay (LPD 20) in San Diego, and work is expected to be completed by October 2026.

The USS Green Bay was commissioned in 2009 and is the second Navy ship to be named for Green Bay, Wisconsin.

BAE Systems has about 41,000 employees worldwide and reported $13.6 billion in 2023 revenue. In addition to its California shipyard, the company has one in Norfolk and one in Florida. Its Norfolk shipyard team received two Navy contracts in mid-October worth a combined $202 million for the maintenance, modernization and repair of two vessels.

Navy awards RTX subsidiary $590.8M contract for electronic attack system

The Navy has awarded Raytheon, a subsidiary of Arlington County Fortune 500 aerospace and defense contractor RTX, a $590.8 million contract to produce nine Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band (NGJ-MB) ship sets for the military branch’s EA-18 Growler electronic warfare aircraft and four more sets for the Royal Australian Air Force, the U.S. Department of Defense announced last week.

The NGJ-MB is an electronic attack system. The award, which is a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, includes associated spares, support equipment and non-recurring engineering.

Raytheon employees will perform 48% of the work in Forest, Mississippi; 43% in McKinney, Texas; 7% in El Segundo, California; 2% in Andover, Massachusetts; and 1% in Fort Wayne, Indiana, according to the announcement. The work is expected to be completed January 2028.

The Navy will pay Raytheon $329.6 million in fiscal 2024 and about $75 million in fiscal 2025, while the Royal Australia Air Force will pay more than $185.9 million at the time of the award.

In October, Raytheon announced a $192 million award from the Navy to develop the Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band Expansion, an upgrade to the NGJ-MB system. The modification is designed to extend the system’s frequency range and provide additional capabilities to improve operational effectiveness.

With more than 185,000 employees globally, RTX reported $68.9 billion in sales in 2023.

Maximus announces feds have backed off $6.6B contract rebid

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct an error in the original version, which incorrectly stated that the contract, not the rebidding process, had been canceled.

Tysons-based Maximus, a government contractor specializing in administrative support for Medicare and Medicaid, announced Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has canceled efforts to rebid the company’s $6.6 billion contract to operate a customer service call center for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

The contract, awarded by the Biden administration to Maximus in 2022 with a one-year base period, included nine one-year option periods until 2031 and covered staffing of the Contact Center Operations call center for CMS programs like 1-800 MEDICARE and the health insurance marketplace.

However, in December 2023, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure announced they would send the contract out for rebidding in an apparent response to walkouts by call center workers. The Communications Workers of America union, which had been trying to unionize Maximus’ call center workers, praised the move. U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut, who had criticized Maximus in 2019 for paying call center workers at low levels for federal grade workers, also expressed happiness that the contract was being re-competed.

On Nov. 1, Maximus announced it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, alleging that the CMS has illegally added a “labor harmony” agreement into the rebidding process for the $6.6 billion contract started in the spring, which the company calls “baseless and unlawful” in a news release.

“Despite providing high-quality customer service, exceeding every performance metric and delivering uninterrupted service even during two hurricanes, CMS is taking the unnecessary step of rebidding the contract only two years into the nine-year term with a requirement for a labor harmony agreement,” the company said in its Nov. 1 statement. “This unprecedented move is illegal and improper pursuant to established law, regulation and procurement policy, and may jeopardize future seamless service to the 75 million Americans with Medicare and accessing health insurance through the federal marketplace all while increasing cost to taxpayers.”

The U.S. Health and Human Services’ decision to cancel the rebidding process is a win for the Tysons company.

Maximus has been the prime contractor for the 1-800 MEDICARE and health insurance marketplace contact centers since 2018 and has supported CMS contact centers for more than a decade, starting as a subcontractor to Reston-based General Dynamics. The company, which employed nearly 40,000 people as of 2023, operates 84 contact centers in 28 states and employs more than 20,000 contact center agents. It handles more than 100 million contacts per year, according to a CMS news release. Maximus reported $5.3 billion in revenue for fiscal 2024, up from $4.9 billion from the previous year.

“Maximus employees have consistently demonstrated their ability to successfully manage this critical program providing essential support to more than 75 million eligible Americans who rely on Medicare and the Federal Marketplace. We appreciate the opportunity to continue supporting HHS and CMS in their vital missions and look forward to delivering innovative, high-quality and reliable solutions that benefit the American public,” Maximus President and CEO Bruce Caswell said in a statement Tuesday.

At 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, just after Maximus’ announcement, its stock dropped from $74.99 a share to $66.80, but rebounded to $72.90 a share at closing.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not respond immediately to a request for comment Tuesday.