By Marina Malenic
The Missile Defense Agency has ordered some additional early-intercept demonstration experiments from Northrop Grumman [NOC] that will put to use technologies developed for the company’s recently terminated Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) effort.
According to Northrop Grumman, the work is being funded by a three-month task order valued at $4.7 million. It was issued on Sept. 29 under the contract the company holds for the Joint National Integration Center Research and Development program.
“The Early Intercept effort aims to address renewed focus by the Department of Defense on dealing with large raids and countermeasures,” the company said in a statement released last week.
Under the contract, Northrop Grumman will lay the groundwork for an experimental, plug-and-play battle management, command and control architecture. The new architecture would be designed to assess sensors involved in early intercept against medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles by two of the agency’s current missile defense interceptors: the Standard Missile-3 and the Ground-Based Interceptor.
“This initiative leverages Northrop Grumman’s legacy KEI and C2BMC (command, control, battle management and communications) expertise and technology to advance a critical and promising capability,” Karen Williams, vice president for Air and Missile Defense Systems, Northrop Grumman Information Systems, said in a statement.
The Pentagon terminated the KEI program earlier this year in a budget that refocused priorities on irregular warfare capabilities. Since then, the Obama administration has dramatically reshaped the U.S. missile defense program, focusing on theater defenses. Officials have said that the new architecture will also rely on a networked system of smaller sensors for more accurate tracking of enemy missiles.
The Northrop Grumman Early Intercept effort will demonstrate an integrated architecture of early-warning sensors, fire control and battle manager systems, and secure communications. The architecture will allow current missile defense systems to engage threats earlier and to improve protection against large raids, according to the company.