GovCon Wire Your Direct Source for Government Contracting News

ERAPSCO, a joint venture of Sparton and Ultra Electronics, has been awarded a potential $1.04B contract to build and deliver sonobuoys to the U.S. Navy from fiscal 2019 through fiscal 2023. The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract covers the production of 932,500 AN/SSQ-62F, AN/SSQ-53G, AN/SSQ-36B and AN/SSQ-101B sonobuoys, the Department of Defense said Thursday.

Leidos (NYSE: LDOS) has received a potential five-year, $900M task order from the U.S. Air Force to support intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations of USAF's Air Combat Command. The company said Thursday it will perform work at USAF facilities located in Virginia, Texas, Nebraska and California.

Two companies have won contracts worth a combined $105.4M to supply medium-sized body armor inserts to the U.S. Army and Air Force. The Defense Logistics Agency received three bids for both firm-fixed-price contracts and will pay for orders using fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds, the Department of Defense said Thursday.

Carahsoft Technology has expanded its role as an Amazon Web Services distributor by offering the AWS suite of cloud-based products and services via the General Services Administration's IT Schedule 70 contract vehicle.

Private equity firm AE Industrial Partners has agreed to acquire heavy-lift rotorcraft manufacturing and operations services provider Columbia Helicopters for an undisclosed amount. AEI said Thursday Columbia Helicopters CEO Steve Brandy will continue to serve in his position and Nancy Lematta will keep her majority share as part of the transaction.

Chad Thyes, a more than 10-year veteran of General Dynamics' (NYSE: GD) information technology business, has been named general manager and senior vice president of Cognosante's civilian health and contact center monitoring businesses.

The U.S. Navy has announced plans to award Perspecta (NYSE: PRSP) a contract extension to continue to provide information technology services under the service’s Next Generation Enterprise Network program.

Lisa Gardner, a former vice president of Engility, has been appointed senior director and account lead for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services portfolio at Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), FedHealthIT reported Thursday. She will oversee Leidos' capture and business development efforts within its CMS market area.

A consortium of private equity firms and Canada-based pension funds seeking to acquire Inmarsat agreed to a number of legally binding commitments with the U.K. government to maintain the satellite communications firm’s operations in the U.K., Reuters reported Thursday.

The full Senate is expected next week to confirm Mark Esper, secretary of the U.S. Army and a 2019 Wash100 winner, as the next secretary of the Department of Defense after the upper chamber’s Armed Services Committee approved by a voice vote his nomination Thursday, Reuters reported.