RTX May Bag a $4.2 Billion Big-Blimp Bonanza
Is $400 million in extra profit, spread over 10 years, enough to move the needle on RTX stock?
Forget stealth fighter jets, drones, and orbital, Earth-observing spy satellites. If you ask the U.S. Army, the future of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) may actually reside in... blimps.
Or at least they had better hope so.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Pentagon announced it has awarded a $4.2 billion, 10-year contract to build "lighter than air systems, tethered systems, and elevated sensors" for the Army to a series of 10 different companies, working together and individually. Several of the names will be virtual unknowns to defense investors, privately held companies with names like Advanced Technology Systems Co, Elevated Technologies LLC, and Skyship Services Inc. Other names, however, will be more familiar:
