The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) last week awarded Northrop Grumman [NOC] $541 million in five, single year firm-fixed-price contract options as part of it winning the competition to develop and build the Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI).
The award, announced Nov. 13, is part of the current research and development Prototype Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement with the company. The contract increases that current agreement from nearly $292 million to about $833 million.
The DoD announcement confirmed this award is in line with MDA’s selection in of Northrop Grumman over over RTX [RTX] for the GPI program (Defense Daily, Sept. 25).
The announcement last week said Northrop Grumman will “continue performance under their existing OTA agreement” and “will further develop and define its Glide Phase Interceptor design concept.”
This work will occur at the company’ Chandler, Ariz., facility and is estimated to be finished by Nov. 2029.
The government obligated $24.6 million in fiscal year 2025 research and development funds at the time of award.
MDA first downselected to Northrop Grumman and RTX and eliminated Lockheed Martin [LMT] in 2022 to continue refining GPI concepts (Defense Daily, June 24, 2022).
In April, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, argued the most recent downselect was conducted earlier than previously planned due to budgeting issues. MDA originally planned to push the downselect after the preliminary design review (Defense Daily, April 16).
Northrop Grumman previously said its design includes a re-ignitible upper stage engine and dual engagement mode to intercept target across various altitudes.
MDA plans for GPI to start delivery in the mid-2030s given technology maturation and system design, but Congress pushed initial operational capability to 2029 and full operational capability to 2032 in the fiscal year 2024 defense authorization act (Defense Daily, Dec. 21, 2023).