Competition For Boeing On Missile Defense Support Contract

August 6, 2009 by
Filed under: Boeing, Business Line, Companies, Contract Additions, Department of Defense, development program, Events, Federal Budget Process, Lockheed Martin, MDA, missile defense, Northrop Grumman Corp., production program, Services, space 

Boeing has been the lead contractor on the development and deployment of the U.S. Ground Based Missile Defense (GMD) system. This system utilizes radars around the world and interceptors based in Alaska to provide long range, large coverage missile defense. This system was the core defense of the United States as envisioned by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the Clinton and Bush administrations.

President Obama and his Secretary of Defense Robert Gates ended the future production and upgrade of the system but several interceptors have been deployed and a capability has been established. The new Administration intends to focus on the Navy’s long range systems and new technologies.

This does not mean that they are abandoning the deployed system. There may also be construction of further radars if the politics with Russia are worked out. Boeing was awarded a support contract worth about $250 million last year to maintain the system. This makes sense as they are the prime contractor on the system. Now MDA has announced that the next support contract will be openly competed. Lockheed and Nothrop Grumman have already announced that they will bid on the contract.

The idea that is competition will make the cost of the contract cheaper. Once a system is deployed there is technically no reason why any company with the capability cannot support it. The government owns the data rights and can transfer them to whomever they need to. It will have to be seen how competitive the other companies are.

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Comments

One Response to “Competition For Boeing On Missile Defense Support Contract”

  1. wyoming on August 7th, 2009 9:47 am

    The government may own the data rights, but from what they themselves have stated, they don’t have the data.

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