Northrop Wins $3.3B Develop Ground-Based Midcourse Defense Weapon System Program

The Pentagon awarded Northrop Grumman $3.3 billion to design, manufacture and deliver the next-generation Ground-Based Midcourse Interceptor for the Missile Defense Agency.

"Under this new contract, the contractor will design, develop, test, and field the next Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Weapon System (GWS) Program. The GWS contract covers the systems engineering, design, development, integration, testing, and fielding of GWS software and hardware meeting warfighter needs, new requirements (e.g. Next Generation Interceptor (NGI)) and evolving threats with greater reliability, availability, maintainability and testability than the current system," the Pentagon said in a release today.

GMD employs integrated communications networks, fire control systems, globally deployed sensors and Ground-Based Interceptors that are capable of detecting, tracking and destroying ballistic missile threats.