WASHINGTON – Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., earlier this year booked a three-year, $23 million contract for space situational awareness activities from a classified U.S. government customer, the company announced during its quarterly earnings call May 5.
The contract is in support of an unspecified U.S. Air Force mission, Harris Chief Executive William Brown said during the call. No further information was available.
The space situational awareness deal was part of $133 million in classified contracts booked by Harris’ Government Communications Systems division during the three-month period ending April 3, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission. Most if not all of Harris’ space-related business resides within that division.
Revenue at Government Communications Systems dropped about 5 percent in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, from $477 million to $455 million, Harris said in the May 5 SEC filing. The drop was due to lower revenue from unspecified space customers and from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite-R program, for which Harris is providing the ground system, the filing said.
Brown said during the call that Harris has received a second request for information from U.S. Justice Department regulators reviewing its planned $4.75 billion acquisition of Exelis Corp., but still plans to close on the deal in June.
