Atop winning several of the largest and most contentious military acquisition competitions of 2018, Boeing [BA] in the month of December alone took home a share of nearly $2 billion in rotorcraft contracts from the U.S. Defense Department, much of it in conjunction with joint-venture partners.
Boeing was selected in 2018 to build both the U.S. Air Force T-X trainer replacement competition and the Navy’s MQ-25 aerial refueling drone — work which Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg estimated at $60 billion — and the Air Force’s replacement for UH-1N Huey helicopters.
Photo: Defense Daily
The late-year windfall in rotorcraft began Dec. 20, when Boeing Sikorsky Aircraft Support, a joint venture of the two aerospace giants that provides logistics support to U.S. Special Operations Command, was awarded more than $1 billion to maintain SOCOM rotorcraft. Sikorsky is a division of Lockheed Martin [LMT].
The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price, cost reimbursable contract is worth up to $1.1 billion for life cycle contractor support for the MH-6 Little Bird, MH-47 Chinook, and MH-60 Black Hawk aircraft.
Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $32.8 million will be obligated at the time of award, which officially took effect on Jan. 1. The company, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, will provide support program management, field service representatives, sustaining engineering and spare and repair parts over a potential seven-year ordering period.
The majority of the work will be performed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
The same day, Boeing proper took home a $250 million contract for engineering and logistics support services for the Army’s CH-47 Chinook fleet, an award that had only one bidder. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2023.
Less than a week later, on Dec. 26, the company’s Mesa, Arizona, arm signed a deal to sell $49 million of AH-64 Apache aircraft, weapons, sensors and related equipment to the Qatari Air Force through the foreign military sales program.
The following day, the Bell [TXT]-Boeing joint program office in Amarillo, Texas, got a $13 million fixed-price contract from for 218 V-22 operational test sets for the U.S. Navy, Japan and other unnamed FMS customers “including non-recurring engineering to address potential obsolescence issues,” according to a U.S. Defense Department contract announcement.
On Dec. 28, the same JPO won a huge $366.6 million modification to a previous contract that covers production and delivery of three CMV-22 carrier onboard delivery aircraft for the U.S. Navy and two MV-22B Ospreys for the Marine Corps.
To kick off the new year, the V-22 team on Jan. 2 was awarded $23 million for continued operation of the V-22 test aircraft at Naval Air Station Patuxent River and Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona.