Despite the government being shut down for 43 days—the longest in US history—the Pentagon was certainly open for business.
After the House struck a deal and President Trump signed a continuing resolution to keep the government open through January last week, the DoD’s workforce returned to their desks to announce nearly $9B in new contracts inked between Oct. 1 and Nov. 12. The primes raked in hundreds of millions, but there were a few non-traditionals in there too— Aerovironment, Firestorm, and Anduril.
Primetime: On the prime front, the usual suspects won big:
- Lockheed scored a $84.7M contract modification on Nov. 10 for the now $9.58B Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile program, which covers foreign military sales to Poland, the Netherlands, Finland, and Japan.
- Boeing won a $876M contract on Oct. 27 to deliver 60 CH-47F Chinook Block II helicopters to Germany by 2035.
- Raytheon snagged nearly $400M across programs including the MS-100 reconnaissance pod, SM-6 missile redesign, the STANDARD Missile, AN/SPY-6(V) radar program, and the F100 engine.
- BAE won an $80M contract modification for military GPS systems with the Space Systems Command and a $20.3M procurement contract for propellant materials.
In other words, business as usual.
Winning streak: However, it’s also been a good month for a few familiar faces on the startup scene.
Anduril, which was on a heater last week, won a $50M ceiling SBIR Phase III IDIQ contract for its Altius-600 loitering munition.
- The Altius-600 can be launched from ground, air, or sea to conduct operations including standoff ISR&T, kinetic engagement, SIGINT, comms relay, and cyberwarfare, according to the company.
- They can also be operated in a swarm by a single operator for coordinated strikes, automated target recognition, and collaborative teaming.
- According to the Pentagon’s announcement, the new $50M contract covers the “government’s efforts to fully integrate the ALTIUS-600 onto various platforms, as well as integrating new accessories onto the ALTIUS-600.”
On Fire(storm): San Diego-based drone startup Firestorm also secured an $18M ceiling SBIR Phase II contract for its Expeditionary Manufacturing Cell (xCell)—the shipping container-like forward-deployable box in which the company 3D prints its Tempest, Hurricane, and El Niño drones.
The contract covers xCell development “to enable mass production of low-cost, autonomous small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, demonstrate production capability, and provide data to support future system verification, training, operation, and product support.”
Drone dollars: Last but not least, AeroVironment (AV) snagged a whopping $874M Army contract for its Puma All Environment 3, Puma Long Endurance, Puma All Environment and Long Endurance Hybrid, and Raven drones, “in support of current and future Foreign Military Sales customers,” according to the DoD’s announcement.
While the Army hasn’t cut AV any checks yet, the DoD said the contract has a “face value” of $874M and “funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Oct. 25, 2030.”
With the shutdown in the rearview mirror, the Pentagon’s workforce back in the office, and some pretty ambitious programs—like that plan to buy 1M drones in the next few years—it’s probably safe to assume the people in charge of the piggy bank could have a busy end to the year.