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Tag: GovCon

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.

GDIT wins $330M in Army training support contracts

Falls Church federal contractor General Dynamics Information Technology has won two Army contracts totaling $330 million, the General Dynamics subsidiary announced Tuesday.

The Army Contracting Command – Orlando awarded the task orders to GDIT in August as part of the $975 million Mission Training Complex Capabilities Support II indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract.

Under the first task order, worth $180 million, GDIT will train soldiers across the U.S. Army Pacific mission training complexes, where soldiers and units receive simulation training to prepare for deployment. The first task order has a one-year base period with four option years.

For the second task order, valued at $150 million, GDIT will provide training services at the XVIII Airborne Corps mission training complexes. The second task order has a five-year base period and six option months.

“Advanced training capabilities are critical to maintaining warfighter superiority,” Brian Sheridan, GDIT’s senior vice president for defense, said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing our long-standing support to the Army with modern training services that will meet the demands of a constantly evolving battlefield environment.”

Over the course of the programs, GDIT will train more than 500,000 soldiers through live, virtual and constructive environments, providing immersive exercises, according to a news release. The contractor will also provide logistical and technical support.

GDIT is a subsidiary of Reston-based Fortune 500 aerospace and defense contractor General Dynamics, which employs more than 100,000 people worldwide and reported $42.3 billion in 2023 revenue. GDIT has about 30,000 employees across 30 countries.

Unanet acquires D.C. AI firm

Dulles-based software company Unanet has acquired Washington, D.C.-based GovPro AI, Unanet announced Friday.

Unanet did not disclose financial details of the transaction, which it completed in November.

Unanet provides project-based enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management software solutions for government contractors and the architecture, engineering and construction industries. GovPro AI provides AI-powered proposal writing platforms for government contractors.

“Unanet is continuing to deliver on its promise to solve real business challenges for our customers,” Unanet Chief Innovation Officer Steve Karp said in a statement. “In addition to helping customers across the GovCon and AEC industries respond to RFPs more efficiently, GovPro AI’s technology and team will accelerate Unanet’s broader AI strategy.”

GovPro AI’s platform creates a first proposal draft for responding to federal requests for proposals. With the platform, government contractors can reduce the average time to create a proposal draft by 70% and can halve proposal generation costs, according to a news release.

Unanet plans to extend the tech into the architecture, engineering and construction market in 2025.

“Being part of the Unanet team means we can advance our innovation and refine the solution features,” GovPro AI founder Alexander Cohen said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to exploring new use cases for customers and continuing to deliver a more efficient, modern way of improving business development.”

With about 375 employees, Unanet has more than 4,000 customers.

Defense/public safety tech manufacturer moving to SWVA

Wrap Technologies, an Arizona-based public safety and defense technology company, is locating its manufacturing and distribution base in Norton’s Project Intersection industrial park, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday.

The company will occupy a new, 20,000-square-foot building at Project Intersection, where U.S. Route 23 and Highway 58 meet. In August, a $10.4 million EarthLink call center became the industrial park’s first tenant. Project Intersection is a development project of the Lonesome Pine Regional Industrial Facilities Authority, a multijurisdictional cooperative authority encompassing Dickenson, Lee, Scott and Wise counties and the City of Norton.

Wrap Technologies CEO Scot Cohen said in an interview Friday that the new plant will be ready by late 2025, but Wrap will be starting production in early 2025 in a temporary local facility. He added that the company, which will remain headquartered in Arizona, expects to invest $4.1 million in hiring new employees. Many of the new jobs will involve manufacturing, engineering and logistics, Cohen said, and the company will also be hiring people to train police officers and other first responders on how to use equipment produced by Wrap.

Scot Cohen. Photo courtesy Wrap Technologies

The company produces tools for law enforcement officers, including BolaWrap, a lasso-like restraint device made from Kevlar that police can use to de-escalate conflicts in the field, and Wrap is building training platforms using virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “On the VR side, there’s a lot of conversation with two local universities” — the University of Virginia’s College at Wise and Emory & Henry University — Cohen said. The company, which has 1,000 police departments worldwide as customers, also has plans for integrated body camera systems and drone technologies for safer and more efficient law enforcement, according to the governor’s news release.

Though Wrap primarily provides public safety technology to police departments across the country, it also is involved in producing defense technology, although there’s a fair amount of overlap between the two sectors, Cohen said.

The reason Wrap is setting up in Virginia is multifold. First, the company supplies products and training to more than 40 police departments in Virginia, including in Richmond and Fairfax County, Cohen said, and the state has skilled workers and strong political leadership. Although Wrap has received offers to move its manufacturing to other countries, “there wasn’t even anybody close” to Virginia’s bid, he added. “The state has everything we want.”

The Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA) approved a $3.16 million loan for the Norton Industrial Development Authority to build the new facility at Project Intersection, and the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission awarded regional economic development groups an $800,000 grant through its Southwest Economic Development program to assist with this project. Youngkin approved a $425,000 Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund grant as well, and the Virginia Jobs Investment Program will support employee training activities at no cost to Wrap.

“As Wrap Technologies brings its operations to Virginia and creates more than 120 jobs, we are reaffirming the commonwealth’s leadership in technology and innovation,” Youngkin said in a statement. “This expansion further accelerates our efforts to develop key technology hubs in the region.”

BAE Systems lands $202M in Navy ship repair contracts

Falls Church-based BAE Systems Inc.’s Norfolk Ship Repair unit has received two U.S. Navy contracts worth a combined $202 million for maintenance, modernization and repair of two vessels.

The U.S. arm of British defense giant BAE Systems announced the awards Monday. Its shipyard employees and their subcontractors will begin working on the guided missile destroyer USS Laboon (DDG 58) and the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1) in February and March 2025, respectively.

“The award of these two contracts will provide extensive work for our Norfolk shipyard team,” David M. Thomas Jr., vice president and general manager of BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair, said in a statement. “We look forward to using our proven experience on recent LHD and DDG work to return these ships to the fleet in excellent condition.”

According to the Department of Defense’s mid-October announcement of the awards, the Norfolk Ship Repair unit received a $114.8 million firm-fixed-price contract for work on the USS Laboon, commissioned in 1995. The contract also includes options that, if exercised, would bring its total value to $117.9 million.

BAE Systems will dry-dock the ship to perform underwater hull maintenance and repair the ship’s main propulsion system, preserve internal ballast and fuel tanks and the external superstructure, and rehabilitate crew berthing and dining compartments.

The $87.58 million firm-fixed-price contract for work on the USS Wasp includes options that, if exercised, would bring its total value to more than $104.69 million. The current USS Wasp is the 10th ship to carry the name and was commissioned in 1989. Work on both ships is expected to be completed by February 2026.

On the Wasp, BAE Systems will perform mechanical work, inspect and repair interior hull structures and refurbish habitability spaces for the crew and Marine troops. The company’s shipyard previously worked aboard the Wasp from February 2021 to April 2023.

The contractor’s Norfolk shipyard has about 900 employees.

Earlier this year, the Norfolk team began working aboard the dock landing ship USS Carter Hall, and the shipyard is currently finishing repair periods aboard USS Kearsarge, a Wasp-class ship, and destroyer USS Nitze.

BAE Systems has about 41,000 employees worldwide and reported $13.6 billion in 2023 revenue. In addition to its Norfolk shipyard, the company has one each in Florida and California.

Paragon Systems fined $52M for alleged fraud

Herndon-based federal contractor Paragon Systems agreed Tuesday to pay $52 million to resolve allegations by the U.S. Department of Justice that Paragon used its own subsidiaries to fraudulently win small business set-aside contracts, violating the federal False Claims and Anti-Kickback acts.

The company is one of the federal government’s largest providers of security, fire and emergency response and mission support services, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s news release, and former top officials at Paragon allegedly directed female relatives and friends to “serve as figurehead owners of purported small businesses” to win set-aside contracts from the Department of Homeland Security that were meant to go to woman-owned small businesses and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, as well as other types of small businesses.

In 2020, Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services (SCIS) rebranded under its subsidiary Paragon Systems’ name. Paragon is a subsidiary of the Swedish security giant Securitas, which announced in September it had set a provision of $53 million to pay the settlement costs.

“The investigation relates to alleged misconduct by certain former employees and to Paragon’s relationship with various small business entities which were a direct or indirect party to contracts with the U.S. government starting around 2012,” Securitas said in a statement then. “Paragon is cooperating fully with the investigation.” According to a news release Thursday, the settlement will be paid throughout 2025.

In the alleged scheme, Paragon executives controlled Maryland-based limited liability companies Athena Services International and Athena Joint Venture Services, and these purported small businesses “surreptitiously paid substantial sums of money” — more than 300 payments totaling more than $11 million — as “consulting payments” to the former Paragon executives.

According to the DOJ, Paragon’s president, vice president of business development, vice president of operations, compliance manager and contracts manager were allegedly involved.

“Those who fraudulently procure, or assist others to fraudulently procure, small business set-aside contracts will be held accountable,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a statement. “When ineligible companies obtain contracts reserved for veteran owned or socially or economically disadvantaged businesses, they prevent the small business community from receiving the contracting opportunities that Congress intended.”

Athena Services International and Athena Joint Venture Services and their owner, Alisa Silverman, along with Paragon, agreed to pay more than $1.6 million to resolve their liability, as well as the allegations that ASI improperly received a Paycheck Protection Program loan that was forgiven in full. The DOJ filed a complaint against another purported small business, Patronus Systems, and its owner, Mabel O’Quinn, the news release said.

“This settlement is the largest civil recovery in over a decade by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS-OIG),” DHS Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari said. “The settlement sends a clear message that the federal government will continue to investigate and prosecute fraud, waste and abuse to protect small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans and other socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. I am grateful for the continued partnership with the Department of Justice and for the whistleblower who initiated the complaint.”

Whistleblower Todd Pattison is set to receive more than $9 million as part of the settlement, the DOJ said.