Defense Contracts: Training & Power

Lockheed Martin and 14 energy contractors just landed Pentagon-linked awards worth up to $3.9 billion for training, maintenance and backup power. (lockheedmartin.com, enr.com) Lockheed Martin said on April 14 that the Pentagon awarded a 10-year, sole-source, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract worth up to $1.9 billion to continue the C-130J Maintenance and Aircrew Training System program. The work covers aircrew and maintenance training for the C-130J transport aircraft. (lockheedmartin.com) Engineering News-Record reported on April 20 that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a separate 10-year, $2 billion multiple-award contract to 14 firms for energy-resilience and infrastructure projects at military installations nationwide. The projects include microgrids, energy storage and backup power systems. (enr.com) A microgrid is a local power network that can keep running when the main grid fails, and battery storage holds electricity for later use. On a military base, those systems keep flight lines, command centers and maintenance shops operating during outages. (enr.com, hnc.usace.army.mil) The C-130J award points to the same support logic on the aviation side: buying aircraft is only part of the bill, and crews need simulators, instructors and maintenance training to keep fleets usable. Lockheed says the Hercules platform is used across 20 mission sets, which raises the value of a long training pipeline. (lockheedmartin.com, lockheedmartin.com) Both contracts are structured for long runs rather than one-off buys. Lockheed’s deal is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity vehicle, while the Corps award lets multiple firms compete for task orders over a decade. (lockheedmartin.com, enr.com) The Army Corps has been building this energy-resilience business for years through solar, battery and microgrid work at remote and military sites, including projects designed to cut diesel dependence and keep critical facilities powered. That makes the new $2 billion vehicle an expansion of an existing base-infrastructure play, not a new line of work. (hnc.usace.army.mil, enr.com) Taken together, the awards show defense spending flowing into the systems behind the systems: training devices, sustainment contracts, batteries and local grids. Those are the pieces that keep aircraft flying and bases operating after the headline procurement is over. (lockheedmartin.com, enr.com)