Pentagon Spent $5 Billion on Weapons on the Eve of the Shutdown
Here are some of the more interesting purchases from Monday's dollar-dump.
First up: the Defense Logistics Agency, the Pentagon branch that
provides the armed services with things like fuel and spare parts. DLA
has the honor of dropping the most cash in one contract last night with
the $2.5 billion award it gave to aircraft engine-maker Pratt &
Whitney for "various weapons system spare parts" used by the Army, Navy,
Air Force and Marines. Other highlights of DLA's last-minute spree
included: $65 million for military helmets from BAE Systems, $24 million
for "traveling wave tubes" to amplify radio signals from Thales, $17
million for liquid nitrogen, $15 million for helium and $19 million on
cots. Yes, cots.
Then came the Navy. The sea service spent hundreds of millions of
dollars on 31 contracts buying everything from high-tech Finnish hand
grenades to janitorial services.
The service's biggest contracts were aimed at protecting ships from
underwater attack. It gave Lockheed Martin a total of $139 million for
sonar that allows Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to detect submarines
and underwater mines. The Navy is also buying $40 million worth of hand
grenades made in Vihtavuori, Finland that allow "users to choose the
level of blast needed for the situation." Another $18 million is going
to Phoenix International Holdings to operate a robot submarine called
the Submarine Rescue Diving and Recompression System that can save people from disabled subs sitting up to 2,000 feet underwater.
No comments:
Post a Comment