Both Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin have announced their intentions to oust Boeing as the prime contractor for the Pentagon’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. Work on the core U.S. defense system has the potential to be worth $200 million a year.
In February, Boeing won the one-year $250 million contract for maintenance and operational support for the GMD system. According to a USA Today article, the program has suffered from “chronic technical problems and delays†and the program is vulnerable to “changed priorities and reduced fundingâ€.
However, Boeing’s director of operations for the GMD system, Terry Kunkel, believes they are still in a position to win additional contracts from the Missile Defense Agency. “With our current program, Boeing delivers outstanding performance for the customer, while also applying lean principles to continually improve, ” said Kunkel. “Therefore we believe Boeing is the lowest risk option for the work because of this experience and success on the program.”
This speculation of potential competition between multiple contractors for work on the GMD system comes after the Missile Defense Agency announced it will seek competitive bids for future GMD operations following the movement towards increasing competition for expensive U.S. weapons programs.
Both representatives for Lockheed and Northrop have stated separately that they are strongly pursuing the GMD contracts.
