LOS ANGELES, Dec. 3, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) today awarded a Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) and Raytheon Company (NYSE:RTN) team the Kinetic Energy Interceptors (KEI) contract, which is to provide the U.S. with the ability to destroy hostile missiles at their most vulnerable stage, the boost/ascent phase of flight.
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Led by Northrop Grumman, the industry team will develop and test this critical boost phase element of the Agency's global layered missile defense system. The KEI contract is valued at more than $4 billion over eight years.
Ronald D. Sugar, Northrop Grumman's chairman, chief executive officer and president said, "We are proud of this contract win, which firmly establishes Northrop Grumman's position as a top-tier systems integrator for missile defense. We have assembled a team of the nation's leading missile defense companies who are committed to delivering a quality system on time, on budget and with mission success assured. KEI is critical to our country's overall defense and will also serve as a visible, deployable deterrent to those who would threaten us."
The award follows a $10 million, eight-month concept design effort during which two competing teams produced concepts for a KEI boost phase program. The Northrop Grumman/Raytheon team will now move forward with its design and begin managing the development and test phase, leading to planned deployment of this new land-based element in the 2010-2012 timeframe. KEI will complement the other boost, midcourse and terminal defense interceptor programs currently underway.
"The Northrop Grumman/Raytheon team's realistic approach will rely on existing, mature technologies to successfully deploy this portion of the Ballistic Missile Defense System," said Donald C. Winter, Northrop Grumman corporate vice president, Mission Systems sector president, and lead executive for missile defense. "The KEI program will provide a land-based capability that can be quickly and easily adapted to sea-based platforms."
"Raytheon is extremely honored to be part of the team that's been selected for this challenging and important program. Our KEI design involved the innovative use of proven systems, providing a new capability for the Missile Defense Agency with a minimum level of risk and cost," said Louise L. Francesconi, a Raytheon vice president and president of the company's Missile Systems business in Tucson, Ariz. "We look forward to working closely with our customers on the development and test phase and deploying this capability as quickly as possible."
KEI Design
Northrop Grumman is leading the team and serving as systems integrator. Overall responsibilities include systems engineering, systems integration and test, command and control, battle management, communications, and launcher development. Raytheon is the principal subcontractor responsible for developing the kill vehicle, for integrating the interceptor and providing a significant portion of weapon system engineering.
The Northrop Grumman/Raytheon design includes a mobile land-based launcher built by Northrop Grumman and subcontractor SEI; a Raytheon-built interceptor that will be faster and more agile than any other interceptor to date; a HMMWV that will house the command and control battle management and communications system; and satellite receivers to process the signal that a hostile missile has been launched. The equipment is highly mobile and can be easily loaded onto a C-17 aircraft and transported worldwide.
Employment
The program will be headquartered in Arlington, Va., with significant amounts of work performed at contractor sites throughout the country. These include Huntsville, Ala., Tucson, Ariz., Chandler, Ariz., Elkton, Md., St. Louis, Mo., Sunnyvale, Calif., and Naval Base Ventura County, Calif. The Northrop Grumman/Raytheon team will begin to increase its staff over the next several years, totaling 3000 employees across the entire team by 2007.
Key subcontractors to Northrop Grumman and Raytheon include Aerojet, Alliant Techsystems (ATK), Ball Aerospace, Booz Allen Hamilton, Davidson Technologies Inc., Information Extraction & Transport Inc., Orbital Sciences Corp. (Launch Systems Group), Oshkosh Truck Corp., Photon Research Associates Inc., Rockwell Collins, SAIC, Schafer Corp., SEI, and 3D Research Corporation.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a $25 billion global defense company headquartered in Los Angeles, Calif. Northrop Grumman provides a broad array of technologically advanced, innovative products, services and solutions in systems integration, defense electronics, information technology, advanced aircraft, shipbuilding and space technology. The company employs approximately 120,000 employees and operates in all 50 states and 25 countries and serves U.S. and international military, government and commercial customers. For more information, visit http://www.northropgrumman.com
Raytheon Company, with 2002 sales of $16.8 billion, is an industry leader in defense, government and commercial electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs more than 76,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.raytheon.com.
Note: Certain statements and assumptions in this release contain or are based on "forward-looking" information (that Northrop Grumman believes to be within the definition in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) and involve risks and uncertainties, and include, among others, statements in the future tense, or implying valuation. This information reflects the company's best estimates when made, but the company expressly disclaims any duty to update this information if new data becomes available or estimates change after the date of this release. Applicable risk factors include government customers' budgetary constraints; customer changes in short-range and long-range plans; the outcome of political and legal processes; as well as other economic, political and technological risks and uncertainties and other risk factors set out in Northrop Grumman's filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, Northrop Grumman reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q.
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