Lockheed Martin and Raytheon announced Aug. 5 that they will work together to compete for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) development and sustainment contract.
Earlier this summer, Lockheed announced Alaska-based partners, Alaska Aerospace Corp. and NANA Development Corp., as members of the team, for which Lockheed will be the prime contractor.
To date, Boeing has been the prime contractor for the GMD program, overseeing and integrating systems developed by other major defense subcontractors, including Raytheon and Northrop Grumman.
Now, the Missile Defense Agency is recompeting the program and is expected to release the final request for proposals within weeks, said Mathew Joyce, GMD vice president and program manager for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., in a call with reporters.
Companies will have 60 days to submit their proposals, and the Missile Defense Agency is expected to select a winner in the first quarter of 2011, he said.
In June, Boeing announced that it is teaming with Northrop to pursue the multibillion-dollar contract.
"MDA has announced the value of the contract is approximately $600 million per year, with an additional period of performance of five years," Joyce said.
Raytheon and Lockheed officials noted their success in teaming up on Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense including Standard Missile-3, Patriot and Patriot Advanced Capability-3, and GMD Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle.
As a strategic partner to Lockheed Martin, Raytheon's role will include systems engineering, development, manufacturing, testing, training and operations and sustainment at all of the key GMD sites, according to a press release.
"Lockheed Martin will be the prime and Raytheon in that case would be a subcontractor, but the term that we've been using of strategic partnership really overwhelms that," said Frank Wyatt, Raytheon vice president of Air and Missile Defense Systems. Raytheon's work will "span the entire bandwidth of the program," he added.
"We're fully integrated across the board, so it's not a condition of we are a parts provider, we are a strategic partner across this entire operation," he said.
One of the goals of structuring the team this way is to reduce overhead costs, both Joyce and Wyatt said.
The companies will base their operations in Huntsville, Ala.
