U.S. Plans I:  Lockheed Martin Reactivates Boost Vehicle Plant

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin said Thursday that it plans to reactivate its Courtland, Ala., facility to work on boost vehicles for the Missile Defense Agency’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, Defense Daily reported Friday (see GSN, Dec. 14, 2001).  The missiles are to be used in developmental tests for the system.

Employees at the Courtland facility are scheduled to begin assembling three-stage solid-fuel missiles in October, the company said.  The first missile will probably be launched in the spring of 2003, company officials estimated, and developers will probably able to conduct the first intercept test six months later, Defense Daily reported.

Lockheed Martin is building the boost vehicles for Boeing, which is the primary contractor for the GMD program.  Lockheed Martin said it would assemble and test a modification of the Boeing design known as “boost vehicle plus,” Defense Daily reported.

“This facility was designed to accommodate a range of missile defense interceptor programs, and we’re pleased to be resuming work in Courtland,” said Doug Graham, vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Defensive Systems.  “The proximity to our customer, GMD prime contractor Boeing, made this site the logical choice.”

Orbital Sciences is working on an alternative booster vehicle for the program under another Boeing contract (see GSN, March 5; Defense Daily, July 19).

For further information, see:

MDA Basics of Missile Defense

MDA Missile Defense System

MDA Midcourse Defense Segment

U.S. Missile Defense 2002 Budget

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U.S. Plans II:  Washington Rejects Kwajalein Test Range Proposal

The United States has rejected a proposal from Marshall Islands landowners to receive $2 billion in exchange for continued U.S. use of the Kwajalein missile defense test range, Radio New Zealand International reported today (see GSN, May 29).  The United States does not regard the request as a suitable basis for negotiations, according to a U.S. State Department negotiator (Radio New Zealand International/BBC Monitoring, July 22).

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