Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Raytheon [RTN] on Tuesday were awarded contracts worth roughly $10 million each to begin work on the Missile Defense Agency’s Multi-Object Kill Vehicle (MOKV), according to a Defense Department statement.
Another contract could be issued this week as MDA spokesman Rick Lehner said three contracts were possible for this early stage of MOVK. Boeing [BA] spokeswoman Cheryl Sampson said Tuesday the company submitted a proposal for the MOKV study contract and expects to receive notification this week.
Lockheed Martin and Raytheon were awarded competitive cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts. They will define a concept that can destroy several objects within a threat complex by considering advanced sensor, divert and attitude control and communications concepts. The contractors will define a proof-of-concept prototype and demonstrate risk mitigation steps and critical functional aspects of the concept. Lockheed Martin and Raytheon will assess the technical maturity of their concepts, prioritize and nominate risk reduction tasks for all critical components and describe how the tasks will reduce risk.
MDA Director Vice Adm. James Syring told the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) in March MDA would, in parallel, reduce technical risk in several areas, including developing and testing MOKV command and control (C2) strategies in both digital and “hardware-in-the-loop” venues that will prove the agency can manage the engagements of many kill vehicles on many targets from a single interceptor. Syring also said MDA will invest in the communication architectures and guidance technology that support this approach.
The fiscal year 2016 defense authorization bill that passed the House directs MOKV flight testing by no later than 2020. The bill also directs that MOVK have vehicle-to-vehicle communications; vehicle-to-ground communications; kill assessment capability; the ability to counter advanced countermeasures, decoys and penetration aids and options to be integrated onto other missile defense interceptor vehicles other than ground-based interceptors of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System (GMDS).
According to budget documents from February, MDA requested a $13 million boost to Common Kill Vehicle Technology (CKVT) to begin concept definition for MOKV. In other plans for FY ’16, industry contractors will deliver initial concepts and modeling parameters for preliminary government assessment.
The MOKV program will also initiate development of the MOKV engagement management algorithms to address managing the many-on-many engagement challenges due to complex threats. A key element of MOKV is requiring industry to comply with a modular, open architecture approach with common standards and interfaces defined by the government.