Lockheed receives $71.6M contract for Trident missiles

Lockheed Martin has been awarded a modified contract by the U.S. Navy for the procurement of the UGM-133A Trident II, or Trident D5, a submarine launched ballistic missile.

The deal, announced Wednesday by the Department of Defense, is worth more than $71.6 million under a cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, which is a cost-reimbursement contract where the initial negotiated fee can be adjusted later to reduce the risks assumed by Lockheed.

The Trident II D5 is the submarine-launched ballistic missile deployed by both the U.S. and Britain, and is the sole nuclear weapon system deployed by Britain.

The missile has intercontinental range and can carry several nuclear warheads using multiple independent reentry vehicles designed to strike several targets with a single missile.

The Trident is the primary sea-based weapon for the triad of U.S. nuclear forces, and is currently deployed on U.S. Ohio-class and British Vanguard-class submarines. It is planned to be fielded by the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines currently under development in the U.S. and Dreadnought-class submarines under development by Britain.

The Trident is expected to stay in service, with upgrades, for a planned 50 years or more. Lockheed Martin will perform the majority of the work on the Trident II at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and the rest at several other locations in the United States. The work is expected to be complete by Sept. 20, 2022.

The U.S. Navy has obligated more than $65.8 million in Navy weapons procurement and Navy research, development, test and evaluation funds from fiscal years 2017 and 2018 for Lockheed at the time the contract was awarded.

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