L3 Technologies [LLL] was beaten out of renewing its largest Army contract the week of Sept. 10, deposed by newcomer M1 Support Services for $387 million worth of training support at Fort Rucker, Ala.
The privately held M1, a Denton, Texas-based aviation training and support provider, won the contract on Sept. 15. The deal is a “hybrid contract” that includes cost, cost-plus-fixed-fee, fixed-price-award-fee and fixed-price-incentives for maintenance services supporting Army entry level and advanced as well as Air Force advanced rotary aviation training mission at Fort Rucker.
Bids were solicited via the Internet with four received. Work will be performed in Fort Rucker with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2027, according to the government’s contracting website.
Howard Rubel, managing director of equity research at market analyst firm Jefferies, said the contract was by far L3’s largest and accounted for 4 percent of company revenue. The company has been the incumbent aviation services provider for Fort Rucker, which houses the Army Aviation Center of Excellence, for 10 years. It has met a recent jump in rotorcraft training demand with high marks from the Army, he said.
“LLL has received good ratings from its customer at Fort Rucker for the $450MM training business it operates for the Army,” Rubel said in emailed analysis of the contract award. “So, we figured there was a decent, but not “a sure thing” probability of a win.”
M1 in early 2017 secured a $90 million contract from Air Force Air Combat Command to perform maintenance on 140 aircraft at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.
“The Ft. Rucker contract would seem to be the company’s largest single award, but it may have the skills and experience to take on the challenge,” Rubel said.
In a related contract awarded three days prior to the M1 deal, URS Federal Services, based in Germantown, Md., took home $49 million cost-plus-fixed-fee deal to provide rotary-wing flight instructor support services at Fort Rucker. That work will be performed in Daleville, Md., with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2023. URS is part of AECOM.