Rep. Ted Budd tries to halt sale after N.C. company carved out of $418M contract

WINSTON-SALEM — IOMAX USA Inc., based in Mooresville, modifies crop dusters into surveillance planes fortified with such weapons as Hellfire missiles. The United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia use them to protect their borders. Now Kenya wants to buy some.

Buyer’s budget: $418 million.

But, IOMAX, which is the only company that has a record of making and selling the plane, has not been selected as the seller. Rather, L3 Technologies, a large defense contractor based in New York with annual sales of $10 billion, got selected.

As things stand, Kenya is prepared to pay $418 million for L3 to make 12 border-patrol aircraft, two trainer aircraft and provide the weapons package, technical support and program management, according to the U.S. State Department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

IOMAX could do the same for $180 million — a 56 percent discount.

Read more: http://www.greensboro.com/news/local_news/rep-ted-budd-tries-to-halt-sale-after-n-c/article_7fa9f9f1-c8d1-59bc-8e6f-85d284307767.html