A $10.55 billion contract described in four words: "LRIP 10 AAC" - what advance acquisition means (Lockheed Martin)
A contract to Lockheed Martin awarded through the Defense Contract Management Agency, obligating about $10.55 billion. The description field reads only "LRIP 10 AAC."
Contract key facts
- RecipientLockheed Martin
- Contract value$10,550,927,664 (≈$10.55B)
- BranchDefense-wide
- Awarding agencyDepartment of Defense
- Awarding sub-agencyDefense Contract Management Agency
- Award typeDEFINITIVE CONTRACT
- Period of performance2015-05-26 〜 2032-12-31
- Contract ID (PIID)N0001915C0003
Contract scope (original)
LRIP 10 AAC
Key points
- Low-rate initial production is the stage of building small quantities while the design settles, matching process against test results.
- An advance acquisition contract secures long-lead material ahead of the main production contract.
- The description reads only "LRIP 10 AAC," and what is being built sits on the side of the main contract.
- Of the 207 defense contracts this site holds as of 2026-09-02, 41 have descriptions of 20 characters or fewer and 15 are blank.
- Fourteen records mention advance acquisition, totalling about $117.8 billion.
- The top ten obligated amounts account for 21.8 per cent of the total, against a median of about $4.73 billion.
1The stage called low-rate initial production
Volume production of equipment does not begin at full speed. Low-rate initial production is the stage at which small quantities are built while the design is still settling, so that manufacturing process and test results can be matched against each other. Aircraft built here are also used in testing, and defects found feed into later lots. It exists as a run-up before full production.
2What acquiring in advance means
- 1Before the main contractItems with long lead times must be ordered early to arrive in time
- 2An advance acquisition contract is signedMaterial is contracted for separately, ahead of production
- 3It connects to the main contractIt joins the production contract signed later
- 4Production beginsAssembly starts with material already in hand
Where material takes years to procure, ordering after the production contract is signed arrives too late. Advance acquisition bridges that gap. The amounts are large and the periods long, yet what is being built sits on the side of the main contract, which makes such a record hard to read on its own.
3Short descriptions are not unusual
A record ending in four words is not the exception. Of 207, 41 run to 20 characters or fewer and 15 of those are blank. Size of amount and detail of description do not correspond, so establishing what is being built from public data means reading other signals - the contract-number family, the awarding office, the length of the period - alongside it.
4The top ten exceed a fifth of the whole
Ordered by obligated amount, the top ten alone account for 21.8 per cent of the total. The median is about $4.73 billion, so this contract at about $10.55 billion is more than twice it. Defense procurement is built in two layers: a few very large contracts and many mid-sized ones.
Why it matters
Advance acquisition keeps production continuous where material takes years to procure. From the supply side it means orders for long-lead items move before the main production contract is signed, changing the premises of production planning and cash flow. For those analysing public data, a number of large contracts carry very short descriptions, so summing amounts alone risks misattributing what the money bought.
FAQ
What is LRIP?
What is an AAC?
Why is the description so short?
Sources (primary)
This article is an independent organization based on the U.S. official spending data below. Verify the exact, latest details with the official source.
- USAspending (award details)
- Contract ID (PIID)：N0001915C0003