WASHINGTON — Now that the US government is open after the longest shutdown in history, the Pentagon is playing catchup, announcing nearly $9 billion in scores of contract awards on Thursday, including a potential big-ticket win for Boeing’s Chinook line with funds aligned to move out with a deal for German aircraft.
After a 43-day shutdown, President Donald Trump inked a continuing resolution Wednesday night to reopen the government until Jan. 30, while some departments or agencies received funding through the end of fiscal year 2026 (military construction and Department Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration, and the legislative branch).
With the Pentagon’s furloughed civilian workforce back at their desks Thursday, the department released details of more than 80 deals it reached over the nearly six-week stint that rough math shows came in under the $9 billion mark in total. (That’s a rough estimate as the figure represents amounts like the ceiling of some indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts or new modifications to existing contracts.) The agreements ranged from smaller ticket follow-on deals to larger ones like one worth up to $876 million for 60 CH-47F Block II helicopters for Germany.
Under that Chinook deal, according to the announcement, the company has until late 2035 to deliver aircraft.
During the government shutdown, the Army also tapped AeroVironment to produce several aerial drones for international customers — the Puma All Environment 3, the Puma Long Endurance, the Puma All Environment and Long Endurance Hybrid, and the Raven. While that deal holds a “cumulative face value” of $874 million, the service has not yet shelled out any of those funds, according to the announcement.
Over in the Air Force, the service awarded Anduril Industries with up to $50 million for a Small Business Innovation Research for its Agile-Launched, tactically-integrated unmanned system.
“This contract provides for procurement and support of the ALTIUS-600 system and related Group 2 UAS variants, payloads, data links, launch tubes … to support the government’s efforts to fully integrate the ALTIUS-600 onto various platforms, as well as integrating new accessories onto the ALTIUS-600,” the announcement said.
Blue Origin also received a $78 million “contract for expansion” for space vehicle processing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla. with work to be completed by the end of January 2028.
Check out the full list of contracts and modifications here.