Last month the GovCon community witnessed a number of highly valued contracts. September had eight contracts valued over a billion dollars awarded for a variety of services such as IT systems and tech programs, nautical vehicle design and foreign military sales. Let’s take a quick look at September’s billion dollar contract awards.

• University of Texas-Austin was awarded a potential $1B contract to support DoD tech programs
• General Dynamics Electric Boat landed a $5B contract from the Navy to design Columbia-Class Submarine
• A team consisting of Dell EMC, General Dynamics and Microsoft won a $1B USAF cloud contract
• The State Department OK’d a potential $5.23B Boeing Super Hornet sale to Canada
• CSRA landed a $2.4B enterprise IT support contract from NSA
• The State Department OK’d a $3.95B F-16V, patrol boats and TOW missile sale to Bahrain withLockheed Martin as the prime contractor
• MD Helicopters secured a $1.4B Army FMS contract
• Huntington Ingalls won a $2.8B contract to modernize USS George Washington carrier

On September 27^th, an applied research laboratory at University of Texas-Austin secured a potential five-year, $1.1 billion contract from the U.S. Navy to research, develop, engineer, test and evaluate multiple technology platforms for the Department of Defense. The UT-Austin research lab will support the DoD’s R&D efforts across various core competency areas including: acoustics, command & control, navigation and warfare systems. Work under the ID/IQ contract will run through September 2022.

General Dynamics’ Electric Boat subsidiary won a potential $5 billion contract from the U.S. Navy to complete design work on the lead Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine on September 21^st. The Integrated Product and Process Development contract includes funds to be used for the development of components and technologies for the submarine, as well as the manufacturing of a missile tube module and reactor compartment bulkhead. The work will take place in Groton, CT; Newport News, VA; and Quonset, RI through December 2031. The Department of Defense added that the IPPD contract includes foreign military sales to the United Kingdom and requires that GD Electric Boat produces strategic weapon support system kits.

On September 20^th, a team comprised of Dell EMC, General Dynamics and Microsoft received a potential five-year, $1 billion contract to create a cloud-based collaboration and unified communications platform for the U.S. Air Force. The General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service awarded the contract as a segment of the Cloud Hosted Enterprise Services initiative. The three companies will provide and manage communications, email, data, office productivity, records management and collaboration support to 776K users across the USAF, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Defense Logistics Agency through the enterprise-as-a-service cloud under the CHES program.

The State Department approved Canada’s request to purchase Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft and related equipment on September 12^th. The aircraft and equipment will be purchased via the U.S. government under a potential $5.23 billion foreign military sales agreement. Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and General Electric will serve as principal contractors for the FMS deal. Ten F/A-18E and eight F/A-18F fighter jets will be sold. Canada plans to use the Super Hornets and associated weapons systems and services to secure critical infrastructure and bolster defenses against threats.

Another September 12^th award was CSRA securing a potential ten-year, $2.4 billion follow-on contract from the NSA. The follow-on contract calls for enterprise information technology services, which will comprise the first third of the classified contract that NSA launched in 2001 in an effort to outsource IT infrastructure services. NSA is expected to award the contract’s other two segments before the new year and sources have said that CSRA plans on bidding on the two segments.

The State Department cleared another FMS on September 8^th, approving Bahrain’s request to purchase F-16V fighter aircraft variant, services to upgrade F-16 Block 40 jets to F-16V configuration, TOW missiles and fast-patrol boats. The FMS is valued at approximately $3.95 billion total. Lockheed Martin will serve as the prime contractor in this transaction and another FMS deal valued at $1.082 billion, which covers the procurement of services for the upgrade of 20 existing F-16 Block 40 jets to the F-16V configuration as well as associated components and support services. Swiftships, BAE Systems and FLIR Systems will act as the principal contractors in the transaction.

On September 5^th, MD Helicopters received a potential $1.39 billion foreign military sales contract from the U.S. Army to build approximately MD 530F helicopters for Afghanistan. The Department of Defense noted that the contract also covers program management, delivery, pilot training and maintenance support services. MD Helicopters will perform work on the FMS through August of 2022.

Huntington Ingalls Industries was awarded a potential $2.8 billion contract from the U.S. Navy to perform refueling and complex overhaul work on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS GeorgeWashington. On September 1^st, the Defense Department said that the Navy will obligate $1.51 billion at the time of award. Chris Miner, vice president of in-service aircraft carrier programs at Huntington Ingalls’ Newport News Shipbuilding division, said that the company will apply lessons learned from the USS Abraham Lincoln modernization program and use digital tools to help the Navy extend the life span of USS George Washington for another 25 years.