Navy Finally Awards $134-Million Contract to Anxious Comarco

After waiting anxiously for months, Comarco learned Friday that the Navy has decided to award the Anaheim firm a new 5-year, $134-million contract to provide computer and engineering services for the Naval Weapons Center at China Lake.

Comarco officials have been awaiting word on the contract--the largest in the company’s history--since early summer.

Comarco has performed similar services for the China Lake weapons center since 1960. As the previous 5-year contract was due to expire this summer, the Navy solicited bids on the work. At least one other company, Systems Support Associates of Long Island, N.Y., was competing for the contract.

“Everyone’s very excited,” said Donald Bailey, Comarco’s vice president of corporate development. The China Lake work “has been about a third of our business. It was significant to the company to be able to continue its growth and maintain its stability.”

Jobs at Stake

The jobs of 600 Comarco employees, or 40% of the firm’s work force, were on the line if the company lost the China Lake contract, Bailey said.

After posting a loss of $12.9 million on revenue of $76 million in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, Comarco has staged a financial rebound. It earned $5.2 million for the quarter ended in April, and the company said it expects to report another profit for the second quarter.

The contract has an initial period of one year, beginning Oct. 1, and includes options for four additional years. Comarco said it expects the Navy to exercise the options, which would extend the contract to September, 1993.

Comarco said the award brings the company’s order backlog to more than $240 million, or three times its 1987 revenue.

Earlier this month, Comarco chairman Walter V. Sterling retired after a year of overseeing the company’s financial turnaround. Gerald D. Griffin, a Comarco director and former director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, was named to replace Sterling as chairman.