WASHINGTON, May 23 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin received a $379 million contract from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command for the production of 112 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles.
The contract also includes launcher modification kits, program management and engineering, as well as spares and other necessary equipment, Dallas Business News reported Tuesday.
The PAC-3 missile is currently the world's only fielded hit-to-kill, pure kinetic energy air defense missile. Production of all equipment will take place at Lockheed Martin manufacturing facilities in Dallas and Lufkin, Texas, and the PAC-3 All-Up Round facility in Camden, Ariz., the report said.
"The PAC-3 Missile has proven hit-to-kill lethality and is the world's most advanced, capable air defense missile, so we're pleased to provide this powerful system to the U.S. Army," Richard McDaniel, director of the PAC-3 Missile Program at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, told DBN. "The battle-proven PAC-3 Missile enables the PAC-3 system to deliver unprecedented levels of protection to U.S. warfighters and our friends and allies."
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control is the prime contractor on the PAC-3 Missile Segment upgrade to the Patriot air defense system. The PAC-3 Missile Segment upgrade consists of the PAC-3 missile, a highly agile hit-to- kill interceptor; the PAC-3 Missile canister, which holds four PAC-3 missiles; a Fire Solution Computer; and an Enhanced Launcher Electronics System, Dallas Business News said.
Over the past 12 years, the PAC-3 Missile has achieved the most successful flight test record of any U.S. missile defense interceptor.
The PAC-3 missile is the world's most advanced, capable and powerful theater air defense missile. It defeats the entire threat to the Patriot Air Defense System: tactical ballistic missiles, evolving cruise missiles and fixed and rotary winged aircraft. PAC-3 missiles significantly increase the Patriot system's firepower, since 16 PAC-3s load-out on a Patriot launcher, compared with four legacy Patriot PAC-2 missiles.
The PAC-3 missile has been selected as the U.S. primary interceptor for the multi-national Medium Extended Air Defense System, or MEADS, a model transatlantic program for the next generation of air and missile defense. MEADS will focus on risk reduction, application of key technologies and validation of a system design incorporating the PAC-3 Missile as the primary interceptor.
Raytheon wins $7 million risk reduction contract
The Raytheon Company announced Friday that it has received a $7 million contract from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency for a risk reduction demonstration associated with the evolving Network Centric Airborne Defense Element program.
NCADE is a missile defense system that will affordably leverage operational tactical missile technologies and infrastructure.
The 12-month Raytheon effort will focus on propulsion systems and seeker enhancements as part of the overall NCADE system capability. Successful results of the effort will be evaluated by MDA to determine applicability to a dynamic, cost-effective capability development program, the company said.
"NCADE is proposed as an affordable boost- and ascent-phase intercept system that complements other MDA defensive capabilities focused on the protection of the continental United States and its allies against shorter range and asymmetric threat missiles," said Michael Booen, Raytheon vice president of Advanced Missile Defense and Directed Energy Weapons. "Successful completion of this risk reduction effort will offer MDA confidence it can have a near-term capability," he said
Work on this contract will be performed at Raytheon's Missile Systems business in Tucson, Ariz. Aerojet will perform propulsion work at its Redmond, Wash., location.
MIT probe rejects BMD research fraud claim
An internal MIT review has found university officials largely blameless for a three- to four-year delay in examining allegations of research fraud at Lincoln Laboratory, the Boston Globe reported Saturday.
The investigation into the possible fraud in a missile defense study began two months ago, five years after the allegations were raised by Theodore Postol, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Postol has criticized MIT for dragging its feet, but university officials have said they were hamstrung by the U.S. government's refusal to allow them access to the necessary materials. Postol argued that a team that included MIT scientists could not have acted in good faith when they used what he said was flawed data to deem ''basically sound" the results from a 1997 test of an infrared missile sensor, the Globe said.
A panel of four MIT professors began looking into the delays in the fall.
The committee affirmed MIT's assertions that the U.S. Department of Defense was responsible for most of the delay. After an initial MIT inquiry concluded in 2002 that a more detailed investigation was warranted, the government refused to allow MIT to investigate and classified some of MIT's documents related to the case, the Globe said.
MIT and Defense Department officials finally worked out a compromise, announced in March, under which the Pentagon would investigate and share its conclusions with MIT.
The panel also found that Postol contributed to delays and complications by failing to offer a clear and detailed explanation of his charges at the outset, adding to his allegations over time.
"The absence of a clear, concise and consistent definition of the allegation complicated the conduct of the inquiry," the panel said. They faulted Postol further for revealing confidential information to the media and others.
The panel recommended a few small changes to MIT investigative procedures. They identified a few minor factors that slowed the university's initial inquiry, including a period of uncertainty about whether MIT's research misconduct policy applied to the situation, given that the work was done for the government, not for MIT. But the panel did not find that MIT made any significant mistakes, the Globe said.
Postol dismissed the panel's findings Friday, the paper reported.
