By Jay Newton-Small
Global Security Newswire

Under two U.S. Air Force contracts awarded Wednesday, Orbital Sciences Corp. will convert retired U.S. ICBMs into as many as 41 space launch vehicles and missile defense targets, according to an Orbital release (see GSN, Nov. 7, 2002). 

The 10-year contracts, worth up to $475 million, call for combining existing commercial technology with rocket motors from retired U.S. Peacekeeper and Minuteman long-range missiles.  The Air Force has been retiring Minuteman ICBMs for many years and began dismantling Peacekeepers, also known as MX missiles, last year (see GSN, Oct. 4, 2002).

The two contracts fall under the Pentagon’s Orbital/Suborbital Program, with one $238 million contract devoted to Peacekeepers and the other, also $238 million, to Minuteman missiles.  The contracts extend the Pentagon program that began in 1997 and produced nine missile defense targets and five space-launch vehicles from retired ICBMs.

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