Tucson’s Raytheon to Get $75M for Missile-Shield Tests

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has awarded Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems a $75 million contract for flight tests of the Standard Missile-3 interceptor later this year.

The contract calls for Raytheon to provide engineering development, testing, support and material to complete the design and delivery of the SM-3 Block IB, the latest version of the missile interceptor, for its first intercept flight test. The contract also calls for Raytheon to provide support for a flight test of the SM-3 Block IA interceptor using a forward-based radar.

Northrop Grumman Submits Final Proposal Revision for Missile Defense Agency’s Next Generation Aegis Missile

Northrop Grumman Corporation today announced it has submitted its final proposal revision for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Next Generation Aegis Missile (NGAM) concept definition and program planning procurement.

The new interceptor is a key element of the layered intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) defense of the nation and will be designed to engage intercontinental, intermediate-range and medium-range ballistic missile threats. MDA has said it plans to make multiple contract awards in early 2011 and plans to field the interceptor in the 2020 time frame.

Pentagon: Lockheed’s MEADS Venture Won’t Get Production Money

In a move that jeopardizes local high-tech work potentially worth billions of dollars, the Pentagon has pulled the plug on production money for an advanced missile-defense program based at Lockheed Martin Corp. in Orlando.

The Pentagon said recently it would not spend any more money on the Medium Extended Air Defense System, or MEADS, once the current development work is completed in 2013. That work alone is projected to cost more than $800 million; billions more would be needed to manufacture the systems.

Indian Interceptor Missile Test-Fired Successfully

In yet another confirmation of its ballistic missile defence capability, India on Sunday fired an interceptor missile, which intercepted an incoming ‘enemy’ ballistic missile at an altitude of 16 km and pulverised it in “a direct kill.”

The interceptor had a specially designed directional warhead, “which will go towards the target, look at it and cause the maximum damage.” The attacker ended up in a shower of fragments over the Bay of Bengal, “confirming a very good kill.” Both the missiles were made by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

NK Developing Weapons to Neutralize U.S. Military Dominance: Gates

North Korea, China and Iran are developing weapons to neutralize the global military dominance the U.S. has enjoyed since the end of the Cold War, the chief U.S. defense official said Friday.

“One of the ways that spectrum will broaden is with the emergence of high-end asymmetric threats,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates told cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon.

USS Monterey to Deploy Monday

The Navy announced Thursday that the guided missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG 61) is scheduled to depart Naval Station Norfolk on Monday for a six-month independent deployment to the 6th Fleet area of responsibility.

The ship’s mission will include providing regional ballistic missile defense (BMD), the first step in the development of a broad anti-ballistic missile system to protect Europe against a potential Iranian nuclear threat, the Pentagon said earlier this week.