Sharp rise in Defense Department purchases of Antenna

Defense Department - Antenna
Army Pfc. Paul Garland & Pfc. Sean McCall set up an antenna for voice and tactical communications. Photo by Chief Petty Officer Robert J. Fluegel.

The U.S. Defense Department purchased 22.2% more antennae in FY 2010 than in 2009.  The charts below analyze the  buying activity of the U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Logistics Agency for Antennas and Antenna equipment; Federal Supply Class 5985.  An analysis of  projected purchases for 2011 indicate demand similar to that of FY 2010.

Federal Supply Class 5985 includes Antennas, waveguides, and related equipment; Aerials; Masts; Tower Equipment; Attenuators; Couplers; Transmission Lines, but excludes Tower Structures.

Defense department antenna buying activity for 2006-2009
Defense department antenna buying activity for 2006-2010

At BidLink.net, we have over 500,000,000 records of defense contracting data, including an archive of purchasing activity dating back to 1985.   For this study, we analyzed 2010 buying activity for Antennae by both total number of contracts and total sales volume.

By contract volume, the leader is Harris RF Communication (CAGE 14304), with 314 total contracts in 2010.  Harris RF Communication is a division of  Harris Corporation located in Rochester, NY.  The company is a manufacturer with over 1,500 employees.  Their primary focus is radio and television broadcasting equipment, communications equipment and electronic components including antennas.  They are certified to manufacture over 16,500 parts for the U.S. Military.

2010 Top 10 Antenna suppliers to U.S. Defense Department
2010 Top 10 Antenna suppliers to U.S. Defense Department

By sales volume, Harris Corporation is the clear leader, with $9,666,106 in sales for 2010.  Aviatech corporation (CAGE code 54520) is in second place with less than half the sales of Harris at $4.2 million.  The largest antenna delivery order for Harris RF Communication in 2010 was SPM7M9-11-F-0001 awarded on October 7  for $512,000.  They produced a total quantity of 400 antennae, National Stock Number 5985-01-559-0074 at $1,280 each.  This is part of a larger GSA contract (GS-35F-0163N) which was awarded on December 9, 2002 and expires on December 8, 2012.  The GSA contract covers 555 different line items.

2010 Top 10 Antenna suppliers to DLA by sales

2010 Top 10 Antenna suppliers to DLA by sales

As with the other industries we have analyzed, many of these companies have long term contracts with the defense department.  This is where the defense department awards a contract to a single company, which may last for years.  The government issues periodic delivery orders against this contract award until it runs out.  This cuts down on the need to request quotes for every order, therefore reducing bureaucracy.  Prudent companies can monitor the expiration of these long term contracts, and with sufficient information they can submit competitive bids and possibly win the contract for themselves.

BidLink.net is an aggregator of defense industry information for contractors worldwide.  This data includes millions of defense contracts, procurement history, part numbers and vendor details.  This unique combination of resources allows BidLink to monitor and extract important information for the defense contracting industry.  BidLink.net, based in Washington, D.C., provides bid consolidation, searching and notification services, as well as part number (NSN) lookup services to many military activities and thousands of private companies around the world.

Top five defense contractors by sales volume

CH-47 Chinook Helicopter
Soldiers examine their CH-47 Chinook helicopter before mission

We examined buying activity from the Federal Procurement Data System, in order to obtain a list of the top five defense contractors.  After reviewing the federal budget, DLA buying activity, and many other sources, we found discrepancies in the data that encouraged us to perform a complete analysis of all purchases in the FPDS.  BidLink.net keeps up to date records of all FPDS transactions.  Below is a list of 21 agencies operating under the Department of Defense who have reported consolidated data on their contractors by dollar value for the fiscal year 2009.  The charts below show the top five contractors by dollar value for each agency.

2009 Top Contractors

Federal

Company Total actions Total dollars
Lockheed Martin Corporation 21,174 $38,512,401,433.23
The Boeing Company 11,468 $21,956,065,368.89
Northrop Grumman Corporation 22,009 $19,654,882,647.82
General Dynamics Corporation 17,988 $16,432,366,120.40
Raytheon Company 10,480 $16,106,903,431.28

Department of Defense

Company Total actions Total dollars
Lockheed Martin Corporation 17,762 $31,348,453,590.56
The Boeing Company 10,799 $20,604,690,106.84
Northrop Grumman Corporation 19,627 $18,293,375,394.47
General Dynamics Corporation 16,261 $15,662,063,160.18
Raytheon Company 9,697 $15,332,423,921.76

Department of the Navy

Company Total actions Total dollars
Lockheed Martin Corporation 4,610 $12,420,762,609.78
Northrop Grumman Corporation 9,844 $8,668,835,819.63
General Dynamics Corporation 6,396 $8,005,594,096.52
Raytheon Company 2,656 $5,095,808,653.19
The Boeing Company 1,607 $4,993,553,179.45
Win More Contracts with BidLink
Win More Contracts with BidLink (story continues below)

Department of the Army

Company Total actions Total dollars
General Dynamics Corporation 4,268 $6,520,702,472.61
Raytheon Company 3,036 $6,386,829,395.31
Oshkosh Truck Corporation 613 $6,002,056,462.20
The Boeing Company 1,272 $5,199,869,571.68
KBR  Inc. 677 $4,637,091,616.01

Department of the Air Force

Company Total actions Total dollars
Lockheed Martin Corporation 4,992 $12,721,684,392.24
The Boeing Company 3,094 $8,328,512,802.70
Northrop Grumman Corporation 4,381 $5,697,914,434.55
L-3 Communications Holdings  Inc. 2,415 $2,506,614,057.32
Raytheon Company 2,261 $2,364,176,372.56

Tricare Management Activity (TMA)

Company Total actions Total dollars
Humana Inc. 257 $3,389,680,098.90
Health Net  Inc. 136 $2,818,236,858.39
Triwest Healthcare Alliance Corp. 128 $2,650,851,737.67
Anthem Health Of Indiana Inc. 1 $750,304,988.85
Sierra Military Health Services LLC 1 $527,348,655.04

Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)

Company Total actions Total dollars
SAIC Inc. 179 $131,231,178.89
Raytheon Company 78 $123,228,271.33
Northrop Grumman Corporation 61 $74,314,286.05
Bechtel Group Inc. 37 $70,181,269.80
Applied Research Associates Inc. 168 $48,317,931.00

Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA)

Company Total actions Total dollars
L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. 423 $160,727,353.44
United Technologies Corporation 336 $127,187,015.51
Rolls-Royce Group PLC 139 $96,846,374.23
Northrop Grumman Corporation 574 $29,925,319.56
Raytheon Company 309 $19,705,598.28

Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA)

Company Total actions Total dollars
Northrop Grumman Corporation 107 $166,653,880.00
Raytheon Company 108 $128,127,696.00
BAE Systems PLC 38 $61,856,490.00
Lockheed Martin Corporation 41 $33,815,997.00
General Dynamics Corporation 26 $21,897,026.00

USTRANSCOM

Company Total actions Total dollars
FedEx Corporation 1,198 $1,506,090,850.42
Evergreen International Airlines Inc. 1,137 $1,322,675,791.37
United Parcel Service Inc. 464 $305,502,933.10
American Auto Logistics LP 18 $202,080,529.00
EP Investments LLC 50 $140,092,877.72

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Company Total actions Total dollars
Lockheed Martin Corporation 52 $160,110,727.00
SAIC Inc. 53 $63,866,621.03
Raytheon Company 33 $41,592,859.63
General Atomic Technologies Corporation 13 $39,645,859.00
Hopkins Johns University 59 $38,422,044.00

Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)

Company Total actions Total dollars
SAIC Inc. 573 $383,239,379.39
Northrop Grumman Corporation 670 $317,452,963.16
Apptis Inc. 400 $263,178,140.07
Artel Inc. 232 $261,362,109.11
Computer Sciences Corporation 339 $198,826,087.16

Defense Logistics Agency

Company Total actions Total dollars
Agility 24,090 $1,913,213,109.55
Royal Dutch Shell PLC 12 $1,893,210,329.86
The Bahrain Petroleum Company B.S.C. 6 $1,754,451,969.04
BP P.L.C. 28 $1,684,285,999.43
Amerisourcebergen Corporation 64,715 $1,258,838,905.31

Defense Security Cooperation Agency

Company Total actions Total dollars
Charles E Collier 14 $8,163,431.67
Integrated Resource Technologies 14 $7,707,247.09
Information Gateways  Inc. 3 $6,598,800.00
Events Unlimited Inc. 53 $4,736,407.84
Culmen International LLC 17 $3,700,905.00

Defense Commissary Agency (DECA)

Company Total actions Total dollars
Kraft Foods Inc. 52,672 $462,530,049.60
Tyson Foods Inc. 57,473 $399,900,586.39
The Procter & Gamble Company 6,453 $312,987,601.32
PepsiCo Inc. 22,856 $210,064,462.15
General Mills Inc. 13,757 $207,429,487.40

Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS)

Company Total actions Total dollars
Lockheed Martin Corporation 123 $59,849,620.17
Computer Sciences Corporation 40 $46,039,582.90
Electronic Data Systems Corporation 62 $42,525,030.67
Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. 108 $27,565,533.00
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP 16 $17,582,793.93

Defense Media Center (DMC)

Company Total actions Total dollars
Innovative Technologies Inc. 27 $17,319,763.74
Taft Broadcasting Company LLC 18 $7,967,929.16
Towne Group Inc. 7 $5,999,071.46
Omnitec Solutions Inc. 22 $4,656,841.63
Film House Inc. 16 $3,499,993.38

Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA)

Company Total actions Total dollars
SKE Technischer Service GMBH 54 $27,755,917.30
Dell Inc. 46 $22,655,101.06
Pearson PLC 650 $17,574,464.41
Audax Reisen Gesellschaft Mit Beschraenkter Haftung 81 $11,935,032.08
Town of Lincoln 2 $10,192,190.00

Washington Headquarters Services (WHS)

Company Total actions Total dollars
Hensel Phelps Construction Co. 12 $208,627,478.00
General Dynamics Corporation 21 $73,953,096.26
Catapult Technology Ltd. 7 $19,756,695.64
Scitor Corporation 32 $19,057,261.13
Dmjm/Parsons A Joint Venture 10 $16,246,022.72

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS)

Company Total actions Total dollars
The Henry M Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Milita 56 $17,422,548.16
Onconova Therapeutics Inc. 1 $4,274,446.00
Corbin Company 343 $3,482,840.02
Concurrent Technologies Corporation 4 $1,022,000.00
World Wide Technology Holding Co. Inc. 1 $966,782.78

Missile Defense Agency (MDA)

Company Total actions Total dollars
The Boeing Company 44 $1,663,936,105.00
Lockheed Martin Corporation 262 $1,326,609,630.63
Raytheon Company 209 $978,990,087.97
Northrop Grumman Corporation 669 $681,660,706.67
Computer Sciences Corporation 137 $214,351,162.60

U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)

Company Total actions Total dollars
L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. 3,553 $781,680,577.20
The Boeing Company 82 $114,830,024.25
M A Federal Inc. 157 $105,376,236.89
ITT Corporation 49 $102,623,504.53
Raytheon Company 142 $91,306,439.18