Each day, we share the DoD contracts that are valued at $7.5 million and above. However, today, there were none. Obviously, there aren’t any contracts on holidays or weekends, but today is a rare moment. The DoD shared that there are no contracts to announce today.
DoD Contracting Process
Typically, each of the military branches, or defense agencies like DARPA or DLA, award contracts daily, and the DoD public affairs office makes those reports public by 5PM EST each day. Perhaps the Chinese balloon drama is taking all the manpower at the Pentagon or the pending federal debt ceiling is impacting defense awards. Whatever, the reason, some days end with zero contracts but other days rain billions of dollars in awards.
However, at times, it’s often a mystery as to why the last day of the fiscal year can have 77 awards but less than a quarter of that gets awarded on the first day of the new fiscal year. It’s always a rush at the end of the year to use or lose the last of the available funds. Defense contracting has some expected cycles to it. The fiscal year, budget, continuing resolutions, or shutdowns all impact when and how contracts happen. While some work may be approved, the constant budget drills can change the timing of many projects.
The DoD has a lot of programs and contractors, with awards going out almost daily from the public affairs office. Each day, you can check in to see awards and contract modifications. September 2022 alone closed out with well over $11 billion in contract awards with just the10 biggest awards. Not every month reaches that dollar amount, but many do – especially when contractors are called on to roll out vaccines or support for Ukraine.
