L-3 Technologies, Inc.’s LLL Vertex Aerospace business unit has won a modification contract worth $10.25 million for providing logistics support to the T-1A aircraft. The contract was awarded by the Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma.Details of the DealPer the agreement, L-3 Technologies will offer contractor-operated maintained supply services, over and above, on-equipment maintenance along with data and field service representatives.Work is scheduled to be over by Mar 31, 2018, and will be executed at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma; Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi; Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas; Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas; and Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida. Fiscal 2018 operations and maintenance funds will be used to finance the task.A Brief Note on T-1A AircraftThe T-1A aircraft is a medium-range, twin-engine jet trainer aircraft used for advanced pilot training. It is used by the Air Force for flying strategic, tactical airlift and tanker aircraft.Our ViewThe defense industry received a boost when the U.S. Senate approved a fiscal 2018 defense policy bill worth $700 billion in September 2017. This bill provides about $640 billion for Pentagon’s main operations, like buying weapons and paying for the troops. The remaining $60 billion is proposed for Overseas Contingency Operations and will be utilized to fund military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.This raised budget is expected to help draw orders for major defense contractors like L3 Technologies, Northrop Grumman Corporation NOC, Lockheed Martin Corporation LMT and The Boeing Company BA.During the third quarter of 2017, owing to the loss of the re-competition of the Fort Rucker Maintenance Support contract, the company decided to sell its Vertex Aerospace unit, anticipating that the carrying amount of the goodwill for this unit may not be recoverable. Thus, the latest contract may not prove profitable for L3 Technologies.Nevertheless, excluding Vertex Aerospace, units of L3 Technologies cater to various defense-related products, which we believe will help the company maintain its leading position in the global security market. In fact, divesting Vertex Aerospace seems to be a prudent move as continuing with a loss-incurring segment offers no benefit to a company’s growth. Instead streamlining its operations toward other realms of the defense space will be more gainful.Such contract wins may or may not benefit the company, as we are not yet aware of what the company’s strategy will be regarding the services it provides through Vertex Aerospace, once it sell out this unit; i.e. whether to keep all the services or a few of them.Price MovementShares of L3 Technologies have rallied 20.5% year to date, lagging the industry’s gain of 28.5%.The underperformance can be attributed to low contract orders from international markets and weak performance in some of the product lines.Zacks RankL3 Technologies carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.Wall Street’s Next AmazonZacks EVP Kevin Matras believes this familiar stock has only just begun its climb to become one of the greatest investments of all time. It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in pure genius.Click for details >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC): Free Stock Analysis Report Boeing Company (The) (BA): Free Stock Analysis Report Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT): Free Stock Analysis Report L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. (LLL): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research