The Missile Defense Agency conducted a flight test of a Ground-Based Interceptor carrying a Raytheon Exo-atmospheric Kill Vehicle on Jan. 26, 2013, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. (Photo:Missile Defense Agency)
By Rich Abott |
@ReaderRabott
1 year ago |
06/09/2023
highlights missile defense

The Missile Defense Agency awarded Raytheon Technologies [RTX] a $621 million contract on June 1 to upgrade and repair Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) kill vehicles, part of a disunited version of the former GMD development and sustainment contract (DSC).

Raytheon won this sole source indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to specifically “maintain the equipment, facilities, and personnel required to transport, test, upgrade, and repair existing Exo-atmospheric Kill Vehicles in a variety of configurations.”

Two Ground-Based Interceptors (GBI) launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. on March 25, 2019, in the first salvo test of an ICBM target. The GBIs successfully intercepted a target launched from the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll. (Photo: Missile Defense Agency)
Two Ground-Based Interceptors (GBI) launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on March 25, 2019, in the first salvo test of an ICBM target. The GBIs successfully intercepted a target launched from the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll. (Photo: Missile Defense Agency)

At the time of award a delivery order for $84 million was issued and $16 million in fiscal year 2023 research and development funds were obligated at award time.

Work will occur in Tucson, Ariz., and the contract covers an ordering period from June 2023 – May 2028.

This award is one of three sole source contracts that cover managing the in-service GMD fleet.

In 2021 MDA decided to split the previous DSC contract structure, managed by Boeing [BA] into five separate contracts, a plan called GM Futures. The new structure included the GMD Weapon System (GWS) program covering new systems, a system integration, test, and readiness (SITR) work to integrate GMD elements and components to the missile defense system, and the three sole-source contracts (Defense Daily, April 21, 2021).

Last year, MDA awarded Northrop Grumman [NOC] a $3.3 billion contract for the GWS management (Defense Daily, Aug. 1, 2022) and Boeing a $5 billion award for the SITR work (Defense Daily, Aug. 30, 2022).

In March, MDA issued a request for information (RFI) seeking industry responses on why no competitors beyond Northrop Grumman participated in the final bidding process for GWS while SITR had three proposals (Defense Daily, March 1).

MDA confirmed to Defense Daily this latest contract is one of the three sole source contracts. The first of the three was a $422 million contract to Northrop Grumman to procure at least six more boost vehicles for the GMD and cover booster vehicle sustainment (Defense Daily, Sept. 7, 2021).

The last upcoming part of the GM Futures contract structure is the Integration and Test contract.

“We are in the planning stage for the Integration and Test Contract,” MDA spokesman Mark Wright told Defense Daily in a statement.