Department of Defense work continues to be a big chunk of the local economy, with local companies winning up to $500 million in awards in February 2024 alone.
With the largest contract, Oviedo-based Shock Stream Technologies and Orlando firm Phoenix Defense jointly will deliver on a $307.2 million deal from the U.S. Army for simulation hardware.
Here are some of the other Department of Defense contracts announced in February that will fuel the Central Florida economy:
- L3Harris Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LHX) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) are two of a group of award winners taking a cut of a $499 million U.S. Air Force contract to design, build and test anti-tamper solutions, which is an aspect of cybersecurity. An unspecified amount of the work will be done in Orlando and Palm Bay where the contractors have offices.
- L3Harris Interstate Electronics Corp. (NYSE: LLL) of Anaheim California, won a $15.1 million modification to a $320 million Navy contract for Trident II D5 missile flight test instrumentation systems support, and 30% of the work will be done in Cape Canaveral. L3Harris Technologies of Melbourne also is active on the project, currently executing on a $320.2 million contract for Trident II D5 Life Extension flight test.
- DKW Communications Inc. of Washington, D.C., won a $72.7 million Navy contract for software maintenance, hardware modification and repair for training systems and environments. Just 1% of the work will be performed in Orlando.
- Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Orlando is one of a group of contractors that won a $60 million modification to a Navy award with a cumulative value of over $1 trillion. Fifteen percent of the work will be performed in Central Florida.
- Axient LLC won a $20.1 million Air Force contract modification, bringing the total award value up to $131 million. The contract is for certification support for the Vulcan and New Glenn launch systems and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Merritt Island are among the work sites.
- The Air Force awarded Adacel Systems Inc. of Orlando got a $49.2 million commercial services contract for logistics support of the Tower Simulation System program for Air Force, Air Force Reserve Command and Air National Guard sites worldwide.
- Lockheed Martin Rotary Mission Systems of Moorestown, New Jersey, won a $12.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for in-service engineering services for the Freedom littoral combat ship. The contract potentially could expand to $69 million, depending on several factors, and 5% of the work is planned for Orlando.
- The Navy awarded Tampa-based TRU Simulation Plus Training Inc. a $54.8 million contract for a T-54A operational flight trainer, three unit training devices, 21 desktop avionics trainers and other devices, systems and support. Offices in Orlando will get 10% of the work.
An aggregation website that pulls from public records, governmentcontractswon.com, shows that from 2000 to 2020, Orlando businesses earned $79 trillion from government defense contracts.
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