Kaman receives $57.3M order from U.S. Air Force

Photo | Kaman Corp. A Kaman worker configuring a bomb fuze.

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By Sean Teehan

Bloomfield aerospace and medical device component maker Kaman Corp. received a $57.3-million contract from the U.S. Air Force to provide joint programmable fuzes to 25 foreign militaries.

The fuzes help control weapons on military aircraft, like F-16s, according to Kaman. The Bloomfield manufacturer has been the Air Force's sole provider of joint programmable fuzes since 2002.

"We have successfully completed our negotiations for Options 15 and 16 of our JPF contract with the U.S. Government," said Richard Barnhart, Kaman Aerospace Group's president. "This order under Option 15 will add $57.3 million to our backlog with deliveries expected to begin in 2021."

Kaman workers at facilities in Middletown and Florida will make the fuzes to fill the order.

The order continues a trend CEO Neal Keating described in an earnings call with investors last month, in which he said despite the $100,000 loss (largely due to COVID-19-related factors) for 2020's second quarter, Kaman's defense segment -- about half its business -- remained steady.

Kaman's commercial aviation sales were down about 36% from the same period last year, and sales of medical devices dropped about 30% from last quarter, but defense sales were stable and overall sales actually increased 2% to $177.9 million.