Welcome to Issue #7 of The Obligated. Every week I monitor USASpending.gov, congressional stock disclosures, and SEC insider filings to find the 3 signals hiding in plain sight. The government publishes billions of dollars of market-moving information every day. Almost nobody reads it.
🟢 SIGNAL #1 — FREE THIS WEEK
$LHX
L3Harris Technologies, Inc. · NYSE · Market Cap ~$54.2 billion
WHAT HAPPENED
On July 6, 2026, the Missile Defense Agency posted a contract notice to War.gov for L3Harris Technologies Integrated Systems L.P. (operating as Aeromet, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma): a 10-year indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a $499,573,000 ceiling to sustain the Flight Test Airborne Sensors program, the aircraft and sensor fleet used to independently confirm whether a missile interceptor destroyed its target. An initial task order worth $22,175,032 was issued at signing, with the ordering period running from September 15, 2026 through September 14, 2036. As of this writing, coverage has come from defense trade outlets (GovConWire, ClearanceJobs, TechTimes, GlobalSecurity.org) rather than mainstream financial media.
WHY IT MATTERS
A $499.6 million ceiling against L3Harris's roughly $54 billion market cap is under 1% on paper, but the number understates the story. The contract was nominally competed and only one proposal was submitted, which means L3Harris now holds sole, decade-long control of a narrow, specialized mission with no qualified alternative supplier in sight. That is recurring, low-risk backlog stacked on top of the company's existing space and airborne systems work, not a one-time award that runs out next year.
WHAT TO WATCH
Watch for follow-on task orders issued against the $499.6 million ceiling over the next 30-90 days; each one will post to War.gov as a separate, trackable data point. Also watch whether this contract gets a mention on L3Harris's next quarterly earnings call, expected in late October.
🟡 SIGNAL #2 — PAID SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
$DRS
Leonardo DRS, Inc. · NASDAQ · Market Cap ~$12.1 billion
WHAT HAPPENED
Two separate War.gov contract notices, posted within 48 hours of each other in early July, put a combined $76.6 million into Leonardo DRS subsidiaries — one for engineering work tied to the Army's Improved Bradley Acquisition Subsystem, the other for production of fluid distribution systems bound for forward-deployed Army units. Neither number looks large on its own. Read together against the timing of a related Army modernization decision still working through the acquisition pipeline, they point to...
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🔴 SIGNAL #3 — PAID SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
$BAH
Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp · NYSE · Market Cap ~$7.5 billion
WHAT HAPPENED
On July 10, the Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Booz Allen Hamilton a $25.3 million contract for what it labeled "quantum-accelerated technology advancement for national advantage" — a notable departure from the consulting-heavy federal work that makes up most of BAH's book. The timing stands out because Booz Allen's stock has lost roughly half its value over the past year on fears of federal workforce and spending cuts, and this award lands just as...
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📋 WEEKLY RECOMPETE WATCHLIST — PAID SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
5 contracts expiring in the next 90 days. These companies are about to win or lose revenue — before any press release.
Editorial note: this week's watchlist is shorter than usual. Building a reliable 90-day expiration list requires querying USASpending.gov's period-of-performance data directly, and this issue's research window only turned up two entries verified to our accuracy bar. Rather than pad the list with unverified dates, here's what's confirmed — the full five-contract format returns next issue.
🔒 $DRS — Early Entry Fluid Distribution System production, Army Contracting Command / Detroit Arsenal (DRS Sustainment Systems Inc.) — estimated completion October 2026
🔒 $FDX / $DAL / $UAL / $AAL / $JBLU — Civil Reserve Air Fleet international charter airlift IDIQ, multi-carrier consortium under USTRANSCOM — current base period nears its end in September 2026
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⚠️ Disclaimer
The Obligated is not a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, or financial planner. Nothing in this newsletter constitutes personalized financial, legal, or tax advice. All data is sourced from publicly available government records including USASpending.gov, War.gov, SEC EDGAR, Capitol Trades STOCK Act disclosures, and the Senate Lobbying Disclosure database. We do not recommend buying or selling any security. All investment strategies involve risk of loss. You are solely responsible for your own investment decisions. Consult a licensed financial professional before acting on any information provided.
The Obligated · theobligated.com · Issue #7 · July 13, 2026