The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) awarded Lockheed Martin [LMT] a $610 million contract for Phase II work under a Foreign Military Sale to continue efforts in a sale of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to Saudi Arabia.
MDA first awarded the company a $946 million contract for THAAD Phase I long lead items and various early engineering development and test equipment items and work in 2019 (
Defense Daily, March 5, 2019).
The State Department initially approved the Saudi THAAD sale in 2017 of 44 launchers, 360 interceptor missiles, 16 fire control and communications mobile tactical station groups, and seven Raytheon Technologies [RTN] AN/TPY-2 radars (Defense Daily, Oct. 6, 2017).
This hybrid firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost reimbursement contract will cover continued efforts started under the Phase I contract. This award also covers “efforts related to ground production, training, spares, spares consolidation, software support, facility support, engineering services, obsolescence (pop-up), continental and outside the continental U.S. system integration and check-out, and maintenance,” the contract announcement said.
Work will primarily occur in Dallas and Sunnyvale, Calif., with a performance period lasting from April 1, 2021 to August 31, 2027.
This sale is a part of the overall $110 billion defense sale announced by former president Trump during a visit to Saudi Arabia in 2017 (Defense Daily, May 19, 2017).
In 2018, a Lockheed Martin official said the Saudi Arabia THAAD initial operating capability was planned for 2023 (Defense Daily, Oct. 23, 2018).