Northrop and Raytheon win key U.S. hypersonic defense contracts
By Mike Stone
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Raytheon Applied sciences Co and Northrop Grumman Corp have gained U.S. contracts to proceed creating missiles to intercept hypersonic weapons, the Pentagon mentioned on Friday.
The choice means Lockheed Martin Co., the No. 1 U.S. protection contractor, which had additionally been competing for a contract, has been eradicated for now from the multibillion greenback progam, however may very well be pulled again in at a later date.
In November, the three firms have been awarded separate contracts totaling about $60 million to develop an interceptor guided by a constellation of satellites and sensors to intercept a hypersonic missile inside Earth’s environment because it glides in the direction of its goal.
The contracts will scale back the variety of firms creating the programs to only two.
As with all protection contract, firms that didn’t win have the proper to protest the choice.
The Missile Protection Company (MDA) awarded a contract of as much as $62 million to Raytheon and as much as $60 million to Northrup for every firm to proceed creating hypersonic weapon interceptors.
Hypersonic weapons are able to flight at speeds 5 occasions the velocity of sound, and may maneuver mid-flight, which makes monitoring them troublesome.
A current Authorities Accountability Workplace (GAO) report mentioned MDA’s inside price estimates for an interceptor system ranged from $3.7 billion-$4.2 billion with accelerated funding.
Congress’ 2023 draft protection price range contains funds to speed up the event of this system, however that invoice has not but been finalized.
The GAO report really helpful that the MDA get impartial price and know-how assessments for the interceptor.
(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Modifying by Deepa Babington and Alistair Bell)
