By Marina Malenic
Boeing [BA] and Northrop Grumman [NOC] yesterday announced a strategic partnership to pursue a Missile Defense Agency (MDA) contract for future development and sustainment of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system.
The companies said that Norm Tew, Boeing vice president and GMD program director, will serve as program manager while Steve Owens, Northrop Grumman GMD program director, will be the team’s deputy program manager.
Boeing is the incumbent on the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense program. MDA first chose the company to be its prime contractor in 2001. Northrop Grumman has been a subcontractor to Boeing on that contract for its entire duration.
Northrop Grumman is currently responsible for designing and deploying the GMD command-and-control systems, known as fire control/communications products. The company has developed and sustained ground-based missile systems for more than 50 years and has been prime contractor for the ICBM program since 1997.
Northrop Grumman executives said in March they intended to bid for the work as a prime contractor, citing their ICBM work as a top qualification. They said at the time that they were actively seeking potential subcontractors ahead of an expected June release of a final bid solicitation (Defense Daily, March 24).
Northrop Grumman spokesman Randy Belote said via e-mail yesterday that the company abandoned those plans because “a joint approach enhanced our opportunity to not only win the competition but meet or exceed the customer’s GMD requirements.”
GMD also consists of radars, other sensors, command-and-control facilities, communications terminals and a 20,000-mile fiber optic communications network. There are currently more than 20 operational interceptors at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., and at Fort Greely, Alaska.
The contract, to be awarded in fiscal year 2011, is expected to be an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) with allowance for various types of task orders and worth about $600 million, according to industry sources. The work will be done Huntsville, Ala., Ft. Greely, Eareckson AS, Alaska, Schriever AFB, Colo., and at Vandenberg.
Initial written comments and questions on the draft Request for Proposals (RFP) were submitted in February, and final comments were due in March. A final RFP is due out later this month.
Lockheed Martin [LMT] executives have indicated that they will also respond to the solicitation as a prime contractor candidate.