Boeing [BA] has responded to a Missile Defense Agency (MDA) request for proposal on the follow-on core completion contract for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program, the company said yesterday.
The contract covers all remaining development and deployment work for the GMD core element.
“We are proud of our role as prime integrator of the GMD system — delivering an operational defense capability to the United States and its warfighters,” Norm Tew, vice president and program director of GMD for Boeing, said in a statement released by the company.
In March 2008, MDA announced its intention to award Boeing the core completion contract sole source, stating that GMD “work content areas cannot be performed by any source other than Boeing without substantial and unacceptable programmatic risk, duplicative cost, and schedule delays.” Boeing has been the prime contractor for the GMD system since 2001, overseeing an industry team including Orbital Sciences [OSC], Raytheon [RTN], Northrop Grumman [NOC], Bechtel and Teledyne Brown in developing and deploying the United States’ only defense against long-range ballistic missiles. Boeing has been operating under a bridge contact since January 2009 while the core completion request for proposal was finalized. The contract award for the core completion work is expected next month.
The core completion contract is expected to include additional refurbishments of ground-based interceptors, hardware and software upgrades, and planning and execution of future flight and ground tests.
The Huntsville-based GMD program has deployed more than 20 operational interceptors against long-range missile attacks at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg AFB, Calif. GMD also consists of radars, other sensors, command-and-control facilities, communications terminals and a 20,000-mile fiber optic communications network.
Meanwhile, Boeing, Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Northrop Grumman have all indicated that they would bid on a new $600 million GMD development and sustainment contract, an RFP for which is expected to be released next month. That contract will encompass all of Boeing’s current GMD work. An award is expected during the second quarter of FY’11. A start date for that contract is expected to be named in the RFP.