Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC

A $100 million competition to procure a Supersonic Sea-Skimming Target (SSST) has been scrapped, forcing the US Navy to come up with a new scheme to replace its dwindling supply of targets. In the interim, the USN may acquire additional Russian-built MA-31s targets.

USN programme officials decline to comment on the SSST project's status until they debrief the contestants. These included AlliedSignal Aerospace, an Orbital Sciences/Raytheon team and Boeing. However, close US industry sources reveal that the USN recently decided to not award the $17 million, 30-month full-scale development SSST contract.

The SSST is initially needed to test shipboard defences against the Russian Raguda 3M-80 (SS-N-22 Sunburn) anti-ship missile. It was to replace the AlliedSignal Aerospace Vandal target and the supersonic MA-31 target which the USN is buying on an interim basis.

The MA-31, a target variant of the Sunburn, was successfully evaluated in a US foreign comparative test programme, and the USN bought a handful of Zvezda-Strela-built MA-31s several years ago. A contract for 20 additional MA-31s was planned during the fiscal year which ended 30 September 1999, but remained unsigned.

The contract includes two options to be exercised next year and in 2001, with 20 targets to be converted and delivered to the USN each fiscal year. MA-31 purchases beyond FY01 were undetermined. It is now reported that Boeing has completed a $55 million deal for 100 MA-31s, with 20 to be delivered to Boeing annually during the next five years.

In the SSST contest, Boeing offered an extended range version of the MA-31, while Orbital Sciences/Raytheon proposed to convert surplus SRAM missiles with Terrier boosters. AlliedSignal Aerospace bid the Sea Snake, an improved Vandal. As an alternative, it teamed with Aerospatiale to offer the in-development Marauder, a ramjet-powered target from the Vesta programme, which is designed to yield a new supersonic anti-ship weapon and an advanced tactical nuclear delivery system for the French military. In July, Marauder was eliminated from the competition on cost.

The industry sources said the SSST contest was terminated after the Pentagon's Office of the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation ruled that none of the candidates would replicate the in-development French supersonic anti-ship missile, deemed the most serious future threat.

Source: Flight International