Lockheed Martin [LMT] submitted Wednesday its final proposal revision for the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Medium-Range Ballistic Missile (MRBM) Targets program.
Lockheed Martin Targets and Countermeasures Program Director Patricia Dare told Defense Daily in a Wednesday interview the company made some changes from its previous proposal in June. Dare said she couldn’t get into specifics as to what Lockheed Martin changed in its proposal, nor what MDA requested revised.
Dare said MDA expects a contract be awarded by December.
Lockheed Martin is leading a team of businesses for its MRBM proposal, including Orbital Sciences [ORB], which in April was reported to be interested in bidding on the program (Defense Daily, April 23). Dare said due to MDA’s requested revisions, Orbital’s role as a subcontractor has changed, but she wouldn’t go into detail. Calls and emails to Orbital were not returned by press time.
Also part of the Lockheed Martin team is Cummings Aerospace, Davidson Technologies and IERUS Technologies. Dare wouldn’t elaborate on what each subcontractor was bringing to the team, but IERUS Technologies Vice President of Operations Billy Todd said Wednesday IERUS’ role is making sure the target missile accurately resembles the threat. IERUS’ website said its core skills include global optimization, radio frequency (RF) spectrum technologies, and software acceleration.
Cummings Aerospace’s website said it its core competencies are end-to-end systems engineering, modeling and simulation (M&S), software engineering, test engineering and quality, safety and mission assurance. Davidson Technologies’ website said its products and services include architecture evaluation, command and control (C2) process analysis tool, system integration framework and anti-satellite command, control and communication systems. Orbital Sciences is known for its short, medium and long-range missile targets, among others.
Representatives from Northrop Grumman [NOC], Raytheon [RTN] and Boeing [BA] said they are not bidding for the targets program.
Dare said MDA requested a medium range ballistic missile target, which she said runs between a range of 500 and 3,000 km. Dare said MDA also asked for air-and ground-launched capability on the shorter range and a longer range version.
Dare said the target is a booster stack missile with a payload on the front end. Dare declined to answer what kind of payload would be on the target.
Lockheed Martin said in a statement the proposal will provide MRBM targets to support Ballistic Missile Defense System element and system flight tests. Requirements include development and manufacturing of MRBMs, integrated logistics support to include inventory storage and maintenance, pre- and post-mission analysis, launch preparation and execution and engineering services. Lockheed Martin performs targets and countermeasures program management and engineering in Huntsville, Ala., and production in Courtland, Ala.