CSC Wins U.S. Army Simulator Contract

Canadian defense contractor CAE Inc. said Friday that it had lost a U.S. Army contract for aviation simulation services worth as much as $1.1 billion to a group led by Computer Sciences Corp. of El Segundo.

The news sent CAE’s stock plunging 15%. Shares of CSC, which declined to comment on the announcement, fell 1.4%.

The Flight School XXI simulation training services contract would be worth $1.1 billion over about 20 years if all the options were exercised, said Michelle Milliner, a spokeswoman for the Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation in Orlando, Fla.

The CSC-led group includes L-3 Communications Corp., NLX Corp., FlightSafety International and Isera Group. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. owns FlightSafety.

CAE had teamed up with Boeing Co. to bid for the order.

In New York Stock Exchange trading, CAE tumbled 70 cents to $4.01, while CSC slipped 51 cents to $36.84.