L3 Harris was awarded a $193.5 million contract for a missile tracking satellite project by the Department of Defense (DOD). Making this their second missile tracking satellite contract from the department in the last year.
L3 Harris and Northrop Grumman were awarded $ 121 million and $155 million contracts, respectively, to build prototype sensor satellites that track missiles by the Missile Defense Agency of the DOD on Jan. 14. The agency selected the two companies from a group of four competitors, including Raytheon and Leidos, who were tasked to design a sensor program.
While Raytheon ranks the 5th largest defense company by DefenseNews and L3 Harris ranks the 9th largest defense company, this is the second time in the last year that Raytheon was beaten by L3 Harris. The L3 communications and Harris Corp merger in 2019 made 2020 their first year as a collective company, with an annual revenue of $18 billion.
In October of 2020, L3 Harris was awarded another contract of $193.5 million by the Space Development Agency on Oct. 5, 2020 to build 4 missile tracking satellites each. Raytheon, another competitor for the project, filed two separate protests against the government’s evaluation process. These were dismissed by the Government Accountability Office after the SDA agreed to reevaluate. They found that L3 Harris and SpaceX were the proper fit and readministered their contracts.
“Competition is essential in all industries but it’s especially important in defense, to allow innovation and reasonable prices,” says the Secretary of Defense of the DOD. According to her, competition is necessary to prevent monopolisation of the industry. The merger of L3 communications and Harris corps concerned the DOD at first because these two companies were the only ones who produced necessary equipment for military-grade night vision goggles, and their merger would result in monopolisation of this product. The issue was resolved with the divestiture of one of the company’s investment in this product.
“Competitive spirit fuels innovation and creates an incentive for us to be better than those who are better than us,” says a consultant of Northrop Grumman. She knows that competition is imperative for success in the industry and to produce the best possible products at reasonable prices.
