Department of Defense Awards $201 Million for GPS Satellite Contract

As reported by the Motley Fool: The Department of Defense announced nine new defense contracts on Thursday worth $1.31 billion. Lockheed Martin didn't win the biggest of these contracts. That honor went to Boeing. But Lockheed did win the second-largest award -- a $200.7 million contract modification to a contract to build GPS III space vehicles 05 and 06.

The contract being modified was originally awarded to Lockheed Martin on May 15, 2008, being then described as "a new contract for the first increment, of the next generation of Global Positioning System (GPS Base IIIA) ... a satellite-based radio navigation system that serves military and civil users worldwide... [using] existing capabilities [to] introduce a new L1C civil signal, increase earth coverage M-Code power for authorized military users, provide a graceful growth path to achieve full capabilities development document threshold requirements, and continue support for the Nuclear Detonation Detection System mission."

This original contract was valued in excess of $1.46 billion, and has subsequently been modified  -- and had dollars added to its value. The modification announced today covers work that should be completed by Dec. 14, 2017.