Bayer Federal Contracts: The Sole U.S. Producer of White Phosphorus, Monsanto's New Owner, and a $7.25B Roundup Settlement

The Defense Contractor Most People Do Not Know Is a Defense Contractor

Most Americans know Bayer for two products: aspirin and Roundup. The German pharmaceutical and crop-science conglomerate, founded in 1863 in Wuppertal, has been a household name in pharmacies for over a century. After acquiring Monsanto for $63 billion in June 2018, Bayer also became the world's largest seed and herbicide company.

But the third Bayer — the one that operates a single mine in southeastern Idaho — does not appear in most consumer-facing reports. That mine is the only domestic source of elemental phosphorus in the United States. The entire U.S. military supply chain for white phosphorus munitions, smoke projectiles, illumination rounds, and tracer ammunition runs through it.

On February 18, 2026, President Trump signed Executive Order 14387, invoking the Defense Production Act of 1950 to declare elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides "critical to the national defense." The order names no company by name. It does not need to. There is only one domestic producer of either input — Bayer.

Section 3 of the EO grants the producer immunity under Section 707 of the Defense Production Act for materials produced under the order. Twelve days earlier, Bayer's Monsanto unit had filed a proposed $7.25 billion class settlement with tens of thousands of cancer plaintiffs. On April 27, 2026 — one day after this article publishes — the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in *Monsanto Co. v. Durnell*, the federal-preemption case that could end Roundup litigation entirely.

This is the story of every federal contract Bayer holds, every dollar that flows from Bayer's Soda Springs mine to U.S. munitions plants, and how a single executive order rewired the legal exposure of a German chemical company that bought America's most controversial seed firm seven years ago.

Bayer Federal Contracts by the Numbers

The White Phosphorus Supply Chain — Mapped End to End

Here is the complete federal supply chain for U.S. military white phosphorus, traced from mine to munition:

The Anchor Contract: W52P1J20D3006

In 2020, the Army's ACC Rock Island awarded a 5-year IDIQ (W52P1J20D3006) for white phosphorus produced by Monsanto, restricted under FAR 6.302-3 (industrial mobilization / domestic capability). The award went to ICL-IP America after a protest from Perimeter Solutions, which the GAO denied (B-418687, 2020). Both companies hold contractual agreements with Bayer/Monsanto for WP supply; neither was deemed an "authorized distributor" under the RFP language, and the GAO ruled that distributor status was a private matter not subject to government contracting law.

A representative delivery order under that vehicle — W519TC24F2053 (December 2023) — procured 180,000 pounds of white phosphorus for $489,600 in support of Pine Bluff Arsenal. NAICS 325920 (Explosives Manufacturing). PSC 1315 (Ammunition, Guns, Through 30 mm). Awarded via direct negotiation acquisition procedures.

This is the procurement plumbing. The same structure has been used since at least 2008 — earlier WP awards to ICL Performance Products in 2008, 2010, and 2011 followed the same pattern. Bayer (formerly Monsanto since 2018) sits at the top of the supply chain. The U.S. government cannot procure white phosphorus from any other domestic source.

What White Phosphorus Loads

The 180,000-pound delivery order feeds production of the 155mm M110A2 White Phosphorus Smoke Projectile, used for screening, marking, and incendiary effects. WP is also a key precursor for:

Per the 2012 Justification & Approval document on FedBizOpps, the Army acknowledged that "WP is a poison" and that domestic manufacturing capability "must be protected within the NTIB in the event of a national emergency." The same document notes that over the past 20 years, "the majority of the manufacturing of WP moved to China and India because of lower costs and the lack of EPA regulations in those countries." Bayer's Soda Springs operation is what remains.

Soda Springs: One Mine, One Smelter, One Country's Supply

Bayer (operating through its Monsanto subsidiary) runs the Soda Springs plant in southeastern Idaho. The facility consists of an open-pit phosphate mine and an electric-arc furnace smelter that converts phosphate rock into elemental phosphorus (P4). Per multiple federal and industry sources:

The Department of the Interior designated phosphate as a critical mineral on November 7, 2025, citing supply-chain risks. That designation set the procedural foundation for the Defense Production Act invocation that followed three months later.

Why Soda Springs Is a Single Point of Failure

When the J&A for the 2012 white phosphorus solicitation went up on the federal portal, the Army wrote:

"With only one known producer of WP in the NTIB (Monsanto), the Government's support of this domestic capability is critically important as it reduces the risk to the war fighter in times of national emergency as well as avoiding a potentially dangerous dependency upon a foreign source."

Fourteen years later, that single point of failure has only become more pronounced. 6 million+ kilograms of elemental phosphorus are imported into the United States annually because Bayer's Soda Springs output cannot meet domestic demand. The EO 14387 findings explicitly cite this gap.

Executive Order 14387: The Defense Production Act Shield

On February 18, 2026, President Trump signed Executive Order 14387 — Promoting the National Defense by Ensuring an Adequate Supply of Elemental Phosphorus and Glyphosate-Based Herbicides.

The order, just 800 words long, does several things:

1. Invokes Section 101 of the Defense Production Act

The Secretary of Agriculture (delegated authority by the President) is directed to "determine the proper nationwide priorities and allocation of all the materials, services, and facilities necessary to ensure a continued and adequate supply of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides." The Secretary of War (the Trump administration's renamed Department of Defense) is to be consulted. This is rated-order authority — DPA Section 101 lets the federal government direct contracts, allocate raw materials, and override commercial supply priorities.

2. Mandates Corporate Viability Protection

Section 2(d) directs that "any order, rule, or regulation issued under this section does not place the corporate viability of any domestic producer of elemental phosphorus or glyphosate-based herbicides at risk." Since there is only one such producer — Bayer — this is a directive to protect Bayer.

3. Confers DPA Section 707 Immunity

Section 3 states: "This order confers all immunity provided for in section 707 of the Act (50 U.S.C. 4557)." Section 707 immunizes producers from civil liability for actions taken in compliance with DPA orders. Critics of the EO read this as a potential firewall against Roundup tort claims and elemental phosphorus environmental liability for any product manufactured under the order.

4. Cites Military Use Directly

Section 1 of the order identifies elemental phosphorus as "a key input in smoke, illumination, and incendiary devices" and as "a critical component for manufacturing the semiconductors that are central to numerous defense technologies, such as radar, solar cells, sensors, and optoelectronics." The order does not euphemize. White phosphorus munitions are explicitly protected federal-defense priority output.

Timing — The Three-Day Sequence

The sequence is its own commentary.

The Lobbying Trail

A US Right to Know investigation linked 22 senior Trump administration staff to Bayer's lobbying or legal network. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi are former partners at Ballard Partners, the lobbying firm representing Bayer. Ballard founder Brian Ballard raised over $50 million for Trump's 2024 campaign and served on the 2024 inaugural and transition finance committees. More than 30 senior officials at lobbying firms retained by Bayer have direct ties to the Trump administration.

Bayer Healthcare: The Pharma Side of the Federal Portfolio

White phosphorus is the most controversial Bayer-federal contract trail, but it is far from the largest. Bayer's healthcare divisions hold steady, broad federal procurement positions across the VA, HHS, DOD, and DOJ.

Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals Inc. — UEI Active, NAICS 325412

Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals holds a VA Federal Supply Schedule contract (36F79720D0237) awarded September 2020, expiring September 2026, under SIN 42-2A (single-source innovator and biological pharmaceutical products). Major active product lines:

Notable recent awards:

Bayer Healthcare LLC — Medrad Imaging Equipment

A separate Bayer subsidiary, Bayer Healthcare LLC (NJ-headquartered, NAICS 339112 / 811219), holds the federal market for Medrad MEDRAD-brand contrast injection systems — the equipment that delivers MRI and CT contrast agents to patients. Federal portfolio includes:

The financial scale is smaller than the pharma division — typical orders are $50K-$500K for individual injector procurements or service contracts — but the recurring service revenue creates a deep, sticky federal footprint.

Bayer Animal Health (Now Elanco) — Veterinary Pharma

Bayer divested its Animal Health division to Elanco for $7.6 billion in August 2020, but legacy Bayer animal health products (e.g. Advantage flea/tick treatments) still appear in some federal procurement records (USDA, DOD MWD program — Military Working Dogs).

The Monsanto Acquisition: Why Bayer Bought $63B of Litigation

In June 2018, Bayer closed the $63 billion acquisition of Monsanto Company. Bayer's chairman wrote: "Today is a great day." Two months later, on August 10, 2018 — International Agent Orange Day — a San Francisco jury awarded school groundskeeper Dewayne "Lee" Johnson $289 million in the first failure-to-warn trial over Roundup's link to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Bayer's market cap fell 14% in the following days.

The Roundup Tort Avalanche

The cumulative cost — including legal fees, verdicts, and settlements — exceeds $16 billion since 2018. The proposed $7.25B 2026 settlement would establish a 21-year claims program funded by capped annual payments, designed to also resolve future claims from people exposed to Roundup before Feb 17, 2026 who develop non-Hodgkin's lymphoma later.

The Vietnam Echo — Agent Orange

Veterans groups including Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) have repeatedly drawn the connection between Roundup and Agent Orange. Monsanto was one of the primary manufacturers of Agent Orange, the dioxin-based defoliant used by the U.S. military in Vietnam from 1961-1971. A 1984 class-action settlement awarded $180 million to 250,000 American veterans on the condition that no wrongdoing was admitted. Vietnamese victims — estimated at 4 million people affected, including birth defects passing into the fourth generation — have never been compensated.

When Bayer acquired Monsanto, it inherited both the Roundup litigation and the moral baggage of Agent Orange. Bayer itself carries pre-existing historical baggage as a successor to IG Farben, the German chemical conglomerate that produced Zyklon B for Nazi extermination camps and was broken up at Nuremberg. Bayer reconstituted as a separate company in 1951.

The Supreme Court Case

On April 27, 2026, the Supreme Court hears *Monsanto Co. v. Durnell*. Bayer argues that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) preempts state-court failure-to-warn claims because the EPA, in its 2020 reassessment, concluded glyphosate is "unlikely to be a human carcinogen" and requires no cancer warning on Roundup labels.

If Bayer wins, the Roundup tort docket effectively ends. State juries lose authority to find liability based on inadequate cancer warnings. If Bayer loses, the $7.25B settlement is the floor, not the ceiling, of future exposure.

The Strategic Picture: What Federal Contractors Should Read Into This

The DPA Has Become a Liability Shield

EO 14387 weaponizes Section 707 immunity in a way the Defense Production Act has historically been used only sparingly — to immunize defense suppliers like Boeing, Lockheed, and General Dynamics from antitrust review during forced merger or capacity expansion. Applying it to a chemical supplier facing 65,000 active tort claims is a structural departure. Watch whether this template is repeated for other sole-source defense-critical chemical suppliers (rare earths, specialty steel, semiconductor precursors).

Sole-Source Defense Suppliers Are Now an Acquisition Target

Whoever owns the only domestic source of a defense-critical input owns substantial pricing power and federal-policy leverage. Bayer's Soda Springs facility is the textbook example. Expect investor and strategic-buyer attention on similar single-source U.S. defense chemical assets — magnesium, antimony, gallium, germanium — many of which already triggered DPA Title III action under prior administrations.

Pharma + Defense Is a Single Procurement Story

Bayer's Adempas, Xofigo, and Ciprofloxacin contracts feed into the same federal acquisition system that procures white phosphorus. The same FAR clauses apply. The same supply-chain disruption risks (export controls, Buy American, trade actions) hit both. Diversified pharma-chem firms face an integrated regulatory landscape — one EO can alter both their pharma franchise and their munitions input position.

The VA Pharma Schedule Is the Stickiest Federal Position Bayer Holds

The 2020 VA FSS award (36F79720D0237) runs through September 30, 2026. Recompete activity is imminent. Watch for the new VA solicitation. Brand-name single-source biologics like Adempas, Xofigo, and Eylea make this near-impossible to displace — but the recompete itself opens the door for additional competitors on generic and biosimilar lines (e.g. aflibercept biosimilars, generic ciprofloxacin).

Subcontracting Opportunities

Bayer's federal footprint creates predictable subcontracting opportunities for small businesses:

How to Track Bayer Federal Contracts

On USASpending.gov, search for:

Search NAICS codes:

On Fed-Spend, set keyword alerts for "white phosphorus," "elemental phosphorus," "Bayer," "Monsanto," "Roundup," "Adempas," "Xofigo," and "Medrad" to capture all new awards in real time. Use the Recompete Radar to monitor the September 30, 2026 expiration of VA FSS contract 36F79720D0237 — this is the single largest Bayer federal recompete on the horizon.

The W52P1J20D3006 white phosphorus IDIQ runs through 2025 with optional extensions; track the next-vehicle solicitation closely. Pine Bluff Arsenal procurement notices on SAM.gov are the leading indicator.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Bayer make white phosphorus?

Bayer does not directly manufacture white phosphorus munitions, but it owns the only U.S. mine and smelter that produces elemental phosphorus (P4), the chemical input. Bayer (through its Monsanto subsidiary) operates the Soda Springs, Idaho facility — the only elemental phosphorus mine in the Western Hemisphere. The phosphorus is sold to ICL Group, which sells it to the U.S. military for processing into white phosphorus munitions at Pine Bluff Arsenal.

What is Executive Order 14387?

EO 14387, signed February 18, 2026, invokes the Defense Production Act of 1950 to declare elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides critical to U.S. national defense. It directs the Secretary of Agriculture to ensure adequate supply, mandates protection of the corporate viability of domestic producers, and confers DPA Section 707 immunity on those producers. There is only one domestic producer — Bayer.

How much does Bayer hold in federal contracts?

Bayer's combined federal contract obligations across its U.S. entities (Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, Bayer Healthcare LLC, and Monsanto-related awards) exceed $400 million in cumulative obligations from FY20 through FY26 to date. The largest concentration is in pharmaceutical sales to the VA, DOD, and HHS. Indirect federal exposure through Monsanto's white phosphorus supply chain is harder to quantify because Bayer is the upstream supplier, not the prime contractor.

Who buys white phosphorus from the U.S. government supply chain?

The U.S. Army (primary buyer), U.S. Marine Corps, and Foreign Military Sales partners — most notably Israel, which has used 155mm M825A1 white phosphorus rounds in operations including the 2008-09 Gaza conflict and ongoing operations. ICL Group, the company that sells WP to the U.S. military, is itself an Israeli-headquartered corporation.

Is white phosphorus legal under international law?

White phosphorus is not banned outright by the Chemical Weapons Convention because it is classified as an incendiary weapon, not a chemical weapon. Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) restricts its use against civilian populations. The U.S. has signed but not ratified Protocol III. Use of white phosphorus on or near civilian populations has drawn international condemnation in multiple recent conflicts.

What is the Roundup settlement?

In February 2026, Bayer announced a proposed $7.25 billion class settlement covering tens of thousands of current and future plaintiffs alleging that Roundup (glyphosate) caused their non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The settlement establishes a 21-year claims program, requires no admission of liability, and was preliminarily approved by a Missouri state judge on March 4, 2026. Bayer has previously paid approximately $11 billion to settle ~100,000 earlier Roundup cases (2020).

What is Monsanto v. Durnell?

*Monsanto Co. v. Durnell* is a Supreme Court case scheduled for oral argument April 27, 2026. Bayer (Monsanto's parent) argues that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) preempts state-court failure-to-warn claims about Roundup's cancer risks because the EPA does not require a cancer warning on the product label. A ruling for Bayer could effectively end most pending Roundup litigation.

Is Bayer a defense contractor?

By federal procurement classification, Bayer is primarily a pharmaceutical and chemical contractor, not a traditional defense prime. But its ownership of the sole domestic elemental phosphorus supply makes it a critical component of the U.S. defense industrial base under the National Technology and Industrial Base (NTIB) framework. EO 14387 makes that classification explicit.

The Bottom Line

Bayer is the most consequential foreign-owned company in the U.S. defense industrial base that almost no defense analyst tracks. Its $63 billion bet on Monsanto in 2018 turned into $16 billion of litigation losses — and a strategic asset (Soda Springs) so critical to U.S. munitions production that the President of the United States invoked the Defense Production Act to protect it.

The $7.25 billion Roundup settlement, the *Durnell* Supreme Court case, the DPA executive order, and the white phosphorus IDIQ all run through the same German balance sheet. For federal contractors, the takeaway is clear: sole-source suppliers in the chemical and pharmaceutical industrial base are now treated as defense priorities — with all the procurement, regulatory, and legal-shield benefits that come with that designation.

Track Bayer's federal contracts in real time on Fed-Spend. Set alerts for the upcoming VA FSS recompete, the next white phosphorus IDIQ solicitation, and any new DPA actions. The firms that monitor the chemical-defense supply chain today will see the policy shifts months before they hit the news cycle.

Track every Bayer, Monsanto, and white phosphorus federal award in real time — start your free trial.

*Sources: USASpending.gov, FPDS, GAO B-418687 (Perimeter Solutions, 2020), Executive Order 14387 (Feb 18, 2026), DOI Critical Minerals List (Nov 7, 2025), Reuters, Time, Chemical & Engineering News, Health Policy Watch, US Right to Know, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Pine Bluff Arsenal acquisition records, VA Federal Supply Schedule contract 36F79720D0237.*