By Sarah Martinson

Law360 (July 2, 2020, 2:05 PM EDT ) While the federal government continues to pour money into the development of coronavirus vaccines, it also awarded multibillion dollar contracts to Raytheon for missile detection radars and General Dynamics for ballistic missile submarines in June. In addition, the Senate kicked off debate about how billions of dollars will be divvied up in the next defense bill.

Here are Law360's top picks for government contracts awarded for the month, along with details about an $50 billion IT contract for small businesses on the horizon:

Race for COVID-19 Vaccine

On top of the $2 billion awarded in May to drugmakers, the federal government awarded two contracts worth a total $765 million to Emergent BioSolutions and Novavax Inc. for the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Maryland-based Emergent was awarded a $628 million deal under the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed program that is dedicated to increasing domestic production capabilities for drug manufacturing, while Novavax received a $60 million contract from U.S. Department of Defense's health funding.

Operation Warp Speed is a joint venture between the DOD and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The program is currently focused on developing and manufacturing five vaccine candidates and eight therapeutic treatments to combat the novel coronavirus, according to HHS.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a June 11 statement that the OWS program will bolster the ability of the U.S. to fight public health emergencies.

"The COVID-19 pandemic clearly demonstrates the need to bring manufacturing back to America," Azar said. "With an estimated 90 percent of medical vials made overseas, foreign dependence could delay efforts to protect Americans with essential treatments and vaccines."

As a part of the program, Emergent also entered into an $87 million agreement to manufacture AstraZeneca's potential COVID-19 vaccine. Under the deal, Emergent will offer AstraZeneca technology transfer, drug testing and other manufacturing services through the end of 2020.

Raytheon Unit Wins $2.3B Missile Detection Radar Deal

Raytheon Technologies' missiles and defense unit won a $2.3 billion contract to develop seven missile detection radars for Saudi Arabia through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program.

The fixed-price contract is for gallium nitride-based Army/Navy Transportable Surveillance and Control Model 2 radars that are part of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, according to the DOD. The radars have two modes that can detect all classes of ballistic missiles after they are launched and when they are descending, according to Raytheon.

The U.S. Department of State also approved a roughly $862.3 million deal to upgrade Canada's F-18 Hornet fighter jets through the FMS program last month. The prime contractors on the deal will be Boeing, Raytheon Technologies Corp., General Dynamics Mission Systems and Collins Aerospace, according to the DOD.

Navy Awards General Dynamics Unit $9.47B Submarine Contract

The U.S. Navy assigned General Dynamics Electric Boat Corp. a $869 million contract that has an option to bump the deal up to $9.47 billion for the design and construction of two Columbia ballistic missile submarines. Electric Boat has already been awarded $6.5 billion for the engineering of Columbia ballistic missile submarines, according to government contract database GovTribe.

The submarine building program is a joint effort between the U.S. and the U.K. to build the latter country's Strategic Weapon Support System, according to the DOD.

The work put into developing industrial bases for the Columbia class submarines will also benefit Virginia and Ford class submarines and is expected to be completed by December 2031, according to the agency.

Electric Boat President Kevin Graney said in a June 22 statement that the company has made substantial preparations for this project "by hiring and training the next generation of skilled shipbuilders, expanding and modernizing our facilities and strengthening our supply base."

"Columbia is our nation's top strategic defense priority and, as the prime contractor, we will provide the safest and most capable class of submarines in the defense of our nation," Graney said.

GAO Rejects 2 Protests Over $7.7B Navy Network Deal

The U.S. Government Accountability Office rejected two bid protests in June challenging Leidos' $7.7 billion contract to provide IT services to Navy and Marine Corps networks located domestically and overseas.

Leidos was awarded the contract in February as part of the Navy's Next Generation Enterprise Networks Recompete, or NGEN-R, program, but both General Dynamics Information Technology Inc. and Perspecta Enterprise Solutions LLC protested the deal.

The GAO ruled in both cases that the Navy had reasonably assigned Ledios the deal, even though Perspecta argued that the company had an unfair advantage given that it hired a former government official.

The agency's decisions allow the Navy and Leidos to move forward with performance on the NGEN-R contract as long as no new protests are filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

The deal is intended to consolidate various Navy onshore network and data management systems into one overarching network, and to modernize that network, which will then be maintained by Leidos.

Talks Begin for New Defense Bill

The Senate began debate on a $740.5 billion defense policy and budget bill for 2021 that designates more money to Navy shipbuilding and cuts a proposed bid protest pilot program from the 2018 defense bill.

The proposed bill provides extra funding for the DOD to buy 95 F-35 fighter jets in 2021, 14 more than the Trump administration requested in February, and allots $21.3 billion for Navy shipbuilding.

The legislation would also repeal a proposed pilot program that would have required large defense contractors to pay the government's costs if they lost a bid protest in the GAO.

The House is marking up its own bill that matches the Senate's overall budget but offers close to a billion more for Navy shipbuilding and only provides funding for 79 F-35s.

Deals on the Horizon

The General Services Administration will be awarding its next generation Streamlined Technology Acquisition Resource for Services, or STARS III, contract that has a total value of $50 billion with bidding starting in July.

The contract is a multiaward deal that is set aside for small businesses, according to a GSA notice. The STARS program is an optional service for federal agencies to meet their IT needs that doesn't have assigned projects, according to the notice.

Small businesses awarded a STARS III contract will have the opportunity to compete for task orders from federal agencies that use the program, according to GSA.

--Additional reporting by Daniel Wilson. Editing by Rebecca Flanagan.

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