|
16 August 2006 |
|
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlebusiness.aspx?... |
|
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama, (Reuters) - The U.S. Missile Defense Agency plans to award Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) two contracts totalling $2.5 billion over the next 14 months for the kinetic energy interceptor, a prototype high-speed rocket designed to knock out enemy missiles in their boost phase, the Pentagon's program director said Wednesday. The first, to be awarded this fall and totalling about $1.5 billion, covers costs of restructuring and stretching out the project, Carlton Brewer, the director, told reporters at an annual missile-defense conference here. The second, to be awarded by Sept. 30, 2007, would total about $1 billion and add a capability to shoot down targets in the middle of their flight paths, he said. The Missile Defense Agency plans to demonstrate the booster capabilities of the kinetic energy interceptor, or KEI, in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 in a test that may decide whether to continue or kill the project, an add-on to the fledgling U.S. missile defense shield. The project backs up Boeing Co. (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research)'s Airborne Laser, a directed energy system aboard a modified 747 airliner also aimed at thwarting ballistic missiles shortly after they are launched, their most vulnerable point. The Airborne Laser is likewise scheduled for a 2008 intercept test that will help decide whether it survives. Pamela Rogers, a Missile Defense Agency spokeswoman, said the $2.5 billion increase to the Northrop Grumman contract was being made with funds already in the KEI budget and was "a previously programmed increase to the existing KEI contract." Northrop Grumman Mission Systems of Reston, Va., is the prime contractor for the KEI effort under a six-year, $4.5 billion deal awarded in December 2003. Continued...
|
|
|
