Raytheon Wins a Mysterious Defense Contract

Over the past two days, defense contractor Raytheon has won a pair of Department of Defense contracts -- one of considerable size, and the other of considerable mystery.

The big contract Raytheon won this week was actually a firm-fixed-price contract "modification," exercising an option under a larger contract to supply the U.S. Missile Defense Agency with AN/TPY-2 advanced mobile radar systems.

A phased array, X-band radar, AN/TPY-2 forms an integral part of America's Ballistic Missile Defense System, where it is used for threat "surveillance, interceptor track, in-flight data uplink/downlink, target classification/ typing/ identification, and intercept assessment" functions. In the instant contract, Raytheon will receive $8.2 million to supply MDA with one AN/TPY-2 prime power unit. Added to the main contract award, this brings Raytheon's take on the work to a whopping $580.2 million.

Raytheon's more interesting contract win, however, came from the mysterious DARPA -- the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. On Thursday, DARPA awarded Raytheon $21.6 million under a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to do ... something. As the Pentagon's contract announcement states: "The statement of work for this effort is classified."

Sure, they could tell you what the contract's for. But then they'd have to kill you -- probably with a drone strike.

The article Raytheon Wins a Mysterious Defense Contract originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Rich Smith has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Raytheon Company. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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