A $3.48 billion Defense Department contract awarded to Boeing Co. and its industry partner Northrup Grumman Corp. was announced Dec. 30, 2011. It is hoped that the new contract will add intelligence jobs and work for those with security clearances.
According to the Pentagon, Boeing has been the primary contractor for the U.S. long-range missile shield since 2001. It is the country’s only working defense against long-range or intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The system is designed particularly to protect the country from attacks by rogue states such as Iran or North Korea.
Boeing, the company to lead the team, received the multi-billion dollar seven-year contract to develop, test, engineer and manufacture the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) hub of layered antimissile protection, the US. Defense Department said.
Northrop Grumman will head up the ground system elements, in addition to supporting operations and sustainment, system engineering and system testing.
The GMD uses placements at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Southern California and Fort Greely, Alaska. The GMD system is based upon a network of land, sea, and space-based radar and sensor methods to detect and track the launch of an enemy missile.
The GMD missile does not carry explosives but depends upon impact to smash into an enemy missile in space and destroy it. The feat has been described as “hitting a bullet with a bullet.”
The 30th Space Wing, according to the website of Vandenberg Air Force Base, directs the Defense Department’s space and missile testing. The wing does this by sending satellites into orbit from locales on the West Coast of the U.S.
Another team, headed by Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Co., competed for but failed to win the multi-billion dollar contract. A Lockheed spokesperson said it was “honoured” to have participated on the bid.
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