Companies to develop ballistic missile defense technology against decoys and maneuvering warheads
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Three U.S. prime defense contractors will share as much as $4.1 billion to help develop enabling technologies to enable U.S. ballistic missile defense systems to defeat advanced missile threats like decoys and maneuvering warheads.
Officials of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) in Huntsville, Ala., announced five-year contracts Tuesday to the Raytheon Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., and Northrop Grumman Corp. to develop advanced ballistic missile defense techniques.
The three companies will provide autonomous acquisition and persistent precision tracking and discrimination to optimize the defensive capability of the Ballistic Missile Defense system and counter evolving threats.
Contracts went out to Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems in Woburn, Mass.; Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems in Moorestown, N.J.; and Northrop Grumman Missile Defense and Protective Systems Division in Huntsville, Ala. Each company will receive at least $10,000, and will compete for orders collectively worth as much as $4.1 billion.
U.S. adversaries are developing sophisticated technologies to foil missile defense systems using innovative approaches like decoys to fool missile seekers, as well as maneuvering warheads able to dodge missile-defense systems.
Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman will develop sensor and digital signal processing techniques necessary to defeat these missile-spoofing technologies and defense U.S. and allied territories from ballistic missile attacks.
These three companies will do the work primarily at their own facilities, and should be finished by July 2023.
For more information contact Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems online at www.raytheon.com/capabilities/missiledefense, Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems at www.lockheedmartin.com, or Northrop Grumman Missile Defense and Protective Systems at www.northropgrumman.com, or the Missile Defense Agency at www.mda.mil.
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John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
