The Missile Defense Agency awarded Raytheon Technologies [RTX] a $621 million contract on June 1 to upgrade and repair Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) kill vehicles, a part of a disunited version of the previous GMD development and sustainment contract (DSC).
Raytheon won this sole source indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to specifically “maintain the equipment, facilities, and personnel required to move, test, upgrade, and repair existing Exo-atmospheric Kill Vehicles in a wide range of configurations.”
On the time of award a delivery order for $84 million was issued and $16 million in fiscal yr 2023 research and development funds were obligated at award time.
Work will occur in Tucson, Ariz., and the contract covers an ordering period from June 2023 – May 2028.
This award is one among three sole source contracts that cover managing the in-service GMD fleet.
In 2021 MDA decided to separate the previous DSC contract structure, managed by Boeing [BA] into five separate contracts, a plan called GM Futures. The brand new structure included the GMD Weapon System (GWS) program covering latest systems, a system integration, test, and readiness (SITR) work to integrate GMD elements and components to the missile defense system, and the three sole-source contracts (Defense Each day, April 21, 2021).
Last yr, MDA awarded Northrop Grumman [NOC] a $3.3 billion contract for the GWS management (, Aug. 1, 2022) and Boeing a $5 billion award for the SITR work (Defense Each day, Aug. 30, 2022).
In March, MDA issued a request for information (RFI) searching for industry responses on why no competitors beyond Northrop Grumman participated in the ultimate bidding process for GWS while SITR had three proposals (Defense Each day, March 1).
MDA confirmed to Defense Each day this latest contract is one among the three sole source contracts. The primary of the three was a $422 million contract to Northrop Grumman to obtain at the least six more boost vehicles for the GMD and canopy booster vehicle sustainment (Defense Each day, Sept. 7, 2021).
The last upcoming a part of the GM Futures contract structure is the Integration and Test contract.
“We’re within the starting stage for the Integration and Test Contract,” MDA spokesman Mark Wright told Defense Each day in a press release.