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MDA Awards Miniature Kill Vehicle Contract to Lockheed
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency yesterday awarded a miniature kill vehicle missile defense contract to defense contractor Lockheed Martin (see GSN, July 28, 2003). The contract — which seeks to produce a system that would confront enemy missile warheads and their decoys with multiple interceptors — could be worth up to $768 million over an eight-year period. Lockheed will receive an initial payment of $27 million, the Defense Department announced. The final miniature kill vehicle system “will be capable of engaging multiple midcourse targets from a single launcher, adding firepower and robustness to midcourse defenses,” according to a Pentagon announcement (Defense Department release, Jan. 7). The system is designed to replace Raytheon’s single-missile interceptor system and has grown out of concerns that multiple warheads or decoys could defeat the planned U.S. missile defenses. “This is the next-generation model of missile defense,” said Doug Graham, vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems. He said the MKV is a “potential game-changing capability for missile defense.” The Pentagon said, however, that Raytheon’s system is the planned form of national missile defense. “Raytheon’s kill vehicle will be used for a long time,” said MDA spokesman Rick Lehner (Jonathan Karp, Wall Street Journal, Jan. 8).
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