Hello, Guest!

Weekly Roundup Nov 16 – Nov 20 2015: A Post-Paris Look at the Global Arms Trade & More


Weekly Roundup
Nov 16 – Nov 20 2015

A Note From Our President & Founder Jim Garrettson

Investors made a sharp turn this week to defense and other government contracting stocks after the Friday Paris attacks in anticipation of increased activity in the global weapons market.

The GovCon Index had recorded a climb of 4.76 percent from last Friday’s close and was on pace to break the 80-point barrier for the first time since Feb. 22 as of this publication.

The Index posted gains for all four trading days this week compared to two by the S&P 500, of which 10 Index stocks are also listed in.

With this in mind, we looked at some of the most recent data available to see both the scale of the global arms trade and the composition of the industrial base behind it.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute — a notable global security think tank — estimates the world spent $1.75 trillion combined on defense in 2013 and the 100 largest weapons makers sold $402 billion in arms then.

Sixty-nine of those 100 companies and all of the top 10 are headquartered in either the U.S. or Western Europe.

Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Britain’s BAE Systems are respectively the top three with Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics in slots four through six.

Places seven through nine belong to trans-European contractor Airbus, United Technologies and Italy-based Finmeccanica with France’s Thales in 10th.

Thales and L-3 Communications switched places from the Institute’s 2012 rankings with L-3 in 11th for the 2013 list.

And already this week, we learned of two new arms deals struck by the U.S. government: a $1.29 billion sale of bombs to Saudi Arabia and a $157 million deal with Morocco for Raytheon-made missiles and missile launchers.

The government will hold a competition to determine the contractor for the sale to Saudi Arabia.

MORE TOP STORIES FROM THIS WEEK

William LaPlante to Leave USAF Acquisition Lead Post, Rejoin Mitre
LaPlante will take up a senior role at the nonprofit organization he worked at before his appointment to the Air Force civilian executive ranks in 2013.
Heidi Shyu to Retire as Army’s Acquisition Chief in January
Shyu has led the branch’s purchases of technology and services purchases since 2011 and first joined the Pentagon in 2010 as deputy acquisition leader.
State Dept Clears Japan’s $1B Northrop Global Hawk Request
Japan will purchase three of the unmanned surveillance aircraft with a suite of sensors and associated equipment for its maritime defense and ISR missions.
ASRC Federal Buys Data Networks Corp; Mark Gray Comments
Reston, Virginia-based DNC holds positions on GSA and NIH contract vehicles for health information technology services and other IT areas.
Gerry Decker Joins Alion as Chief Growth Officer
The three-decade GovCon veteran heads to the technology services contractor four months after its acquisition by Veritas Capital.
Air Force Adds 10 Firms to Potential $5B Cyber, Info Systems Support IDIQ
The branch selected this round of awardees through a full-and-open competition to join six other companies with small business set-aside positions.
NVRC Study: California, Northern Virginia Top Federal Contracting States for 2010-14
The Northern Virginia Regional Commission evaluates the impact of sequestration on Northern Virginia in this study.
Michael Niggel on ACT I’s Role in the F-35 Program and His Foreign Military Sales Outlook
ACT I’s CEO also describes the wave of systems engineering businesses divestitures since 2000 that led to the company’s launch.
IBM Adds 5 New Federal Cloud Ecosystem Partners; Anne Altman Comments
Partners will act as resellers and distributors of IBM’s cloud services and have access to Big Blue’s software-as-a-service portfolio.
ULA Stops Air Force Satellite Launch Services Contract Pursuit
Elon Musk’s SpaceX appears to have the only bid in so far for the contract to launch the next GPS III satellite.
CACI Debuts ‘SkyTracker’ UAS Detection System; Ken Asbury Comments
SkyTracker is built with radio links that work to monitor drones that fly in or around tightly-restricted airspace.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella: ‘Operational Security Posture’ Key to Computer Network Defense
Nadella tells a Washington event audience partnerships in the IT industry are key to cybersecurity efforts.
Ashton Carter: DoD Eyes New Programs to Attract Future Troops, Civilian Talent
Defense Secretary Carter unveils the Pentagon’s “Force of the Future” initiative to expand the military’s civilian and uniformed numbers.
Alan Lynn: DISA Eyes ‘Identity Assurance’ Cyber Partnership With Industry
DISA’s director also describes what he called an “Economic Cold War” adversaries in cyberspace try to spur.
Tony Scott: Agencies Should Share Cyber Systems as Part of Long-Term Strategy
The federal chief information officer describes his vision of an environment for the exchanges of both information and ideas.

Video of the Day

Related Articles