NG wins new Minuteman ICBM motor contract

CLEARFIELD, Utah, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Northrop Grumman has won a new U.S. Air Force order to replace the motors on Minuteman ICBMs.

"The U.S. Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a 23-month, $176 million contract in October to continue the full-rate production phase of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile -- ICBM -- Propulsion Replacement Program -- PRP. The program will replace aging solid-rocket motor sets for stages 1, 2, and 3 in the Minuteman III missile arsenal with re-manufactured motors to maintain alert-readiness status through 2030," the company said in a statement last week.

"This award represents the seventh and final full-rate production option under the 10-year, cost plus award fee/incentive fee PRP contract. The PRP contract began in 1999 and is valued at $1.9 billion. Under this option, Northrop Grumman will deliver 56 motor sets, for a total of 601. A motor set is comprised of a stage 1, stage 2, stage 3 and inter-stage ordnance components," Northrop Grumman said.

"The propulsion replacement program has been an enormously successful effort," said John Clay, vice president and general manager for the Northrop Grumman ICBM Prime Integration Contract. "We have accomplished what we set out to do - provide our nation with a modernized, reliable, strong, deterrent weapon system that will be in place through 2030. I applaud our PRP Team for continuing execution of such an extremely complicated effort on-time and within budget."

"Teammate Alliant Techsystems -- ATK -- is producing all three stages at full rate and expects to deliver all production motors by August 2009. The re-manufacturing of the motors includes replacing the aging propellant in the motors and replacing obsolete or environmentally unsafe materials and components. Minuteman stage 1 motors are manufactured by ATK at its facility in Promontory, Utah, and stage 2 and 3 motors are manufactured at the ATK Bacchus facility in Magna, Utah, with components provided by the ATK Promontory and Clearfield Utah facilities," Northrop Grumman said.

Northrop Grumman said PRP was "one of eight large modification programs currently managed by Northrop Grumman's Mission Systems sector, prime integration contractor for the program."