Northrop Grumman Team Wins Billion Dollar Missile Defense Program

MISSILE DEFENSE

Northrop Grumman Wins Billion Dollar Missile Defense Program

it's the "thought" that counts

Los Angeles - Dec 04, 2003
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) today awarded a Northrop Grumman and Raytheon team the Kinetic Energy Interceptors (KEI) contract, which is to provide the U.S. with the ability to destroy hostile missiles at their most vulnerable stage, the boost/ascent phase of flight.

Led by Northrop Grumman, the industry team will develop and test this critical boost phase element of the Agency's global layered missile defense system. The KEI contract is valued at more than $4 billion over eight years.

Ronald D. Sugar, Northrop Grumman's chairman, chief executive officer and president said, "We are proud of this contract win, which firmly establishes Northrop Grumman's position as a top-tier systems integrator for missile defense. We have assembled a team of the nation's leading missile defense companies who are committed to delivering a quality system on time, on budget and with mission success assured. KEI is critical to our country's overall defense and will also serve as a visible, deployable deterrent to those who would threaten us."

The award follows a $10 million, eight-month concept design effort during which two competing teams produced concepts for a KEI boost phase program. The Northrop Grumman/Raytheon team will now move forward with its design and begin managing the development and test phase, leading to planned deployment of this new land-based element in the 2010-2012 timeframe. KEI will complement the other boost, midcourse and terminal defense interceptor programs currently underway.

"The Northrop Grumman/Raytheon team's realistic approach will rely on existing, mature technologies to successfully deploy this portion of the Ballistic Missile Defense System," said Donald C. Winter, Northrop Grumman corporate vice president, Mission Systems sector president, and lead executive for missile defense. "The KEI program will provide a land-based capability that can be quickly and easily adapted to sea-based platforms."

"Raytheon is extremely honored to be part of the team that's been selected for this challenging and important program. Our KEI design involved the innovative use of proven systems, providing a new capability for the Missile Defense Agency with a minimum level of risk and cost," said Louise L. Francesconi, a Raytheon vice president and president of the company's Missile Systems business in Tucson, Ariz. "We look forward to working closely with our customers on the development and test phase and deploying this capability as quickly as possible."

KEI Design
Northrop Grumman is leading the team and serving as systems integrator. Overall responsibilities include systems engineering, systems integration and test, command and control, battle management, communications, and launcher development. Raytheon is the principal subcontractor responsible for developing the kill vehicle, for integrating the interceptor and providing a significant portion of weapon system engineering.

The Northrop Grumman/Raytheon design includes a mobile land-based launcher built by Northrop Grumman and subcontractor SEI; a Raytheon-built interceptor that will be faster and more agile than any other interceptor to date; a HMMWV that will house the command and control battle management and communications system; and satellite receivers to process the signal that a hostile missile has been launched. The equipment is highly mobile and can be easily loaded onto a C-17 aircraft and transported worldwide.

Employment
The program will be headquartered in Arlington, Va., with significant amounts of work performed at contractor sites throughout the country. These include Huntsville, Ala., Tucson, Ariz., Chandler, Ariz., Elkton, Md., St. Louis, Mo., Sunnyvale, Calif., and Naval Base Ventura County, Calif. The Northrop Grumman/Raytheon team will begin to increase its staff over the next several years, totaling 3000 employees across the entire team by 2007.

Key subcontractors to Northrop Grumman and Raytheon include Aerojet, Alliant Techsystems (ATK), Ball Aerospace, Booz Allen Hamilton, Davidson Technologies Inc., Information Extraction & Transport Inc., Orbital Sciences Corp. (Launch Systems Group), Oshkosh Truck Corp., Photon Research Associates Inc., Rockwell Collins, SAIC, Schafer Corp., SEI, and 3D Research Corporation.

MISSILE DEFENSE

Lockheed Martin Delivers First Aegis Weapon System to Norway

Moorestown - Dec 03, 2003
Lockheed Martin marked the completion of the first Aegis Integrated Weapon System (IWS) with the SPY-1F radar for the Royal Norwegian Navy today with a pull- the-plug ceremony at its Moorestown facility. The system will be packed and shipped to Spanish shipbuilder IZAR for installation on the Fridtjof Nansen, the first ship of the F310 Norwegian frigate program, now under construction in Ferrol, Spain.

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