The US Department of Defense has awarded Boeing a deal worth up to an extra $6 billion to continue development of the National Missile Defense (NMD) system.
The contract, covering R&D until September 2007, exercises options under a $2.2 billion contract awarded to Boeing in 1998. The new deal restricts immediate funding to the amount earmarked for NMD for fiscal year 2001. Subsequent planned spending will be reviewed by the incoming Bush Administration.
The award follows outgoing US President Clinton's September decision to defer the NMD deployment decision to President-elect George Bush, who has expressed support for the project.
The initial contract runs out in April. The latest award is designed to keep the NMD R&D on track, eliminating the potential for interruption of planned test activities. It has a potential value of $13 billion, if all future options are exercised.
The last two NMD tests, in January and July last year, were unsuccessful, and the next test of the $40 billion "hit-to-kill" anti-ballistic weapon system, which was set to take place this month, has slipped several months. The back-to-back test failures and the lack of a presidential go-ahead effectively delays by at least two years the 2005 date for fielding NMD.
The system would consist of a network of radars, battle management command, control and communications assets, and 100 ground-based interceptors, each carrying a single Raytheon exo-atmospheric kill vehicle. Clinton called the project "promising" but said there is insufficient technical and operational effectiveness data to make a fielding decision.
Source: Flight International