PENTAGON BACKS MISSILE DEFENSE AFTER BOTCHED $1.2B PROJECT

The Biden administration is pressing ahead with efforts to develop a successor to a failed missile interceptor project that cost $1.2 billion, awarding an initial contract as soon as this month to two of the three biggest US defense contractors, Tony Capaccio reported for Bloomberg.

The decision to proceed is one of the first procurement decisions under new Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency plans to choose two winners for five-year design and development contracts from teams led by Northrop Grumman Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co.

Pentagon spokeswoman Jessica Maxwell said the agency “continues to adhere to established source selection processes as they evaluate each of the proposals and anticipates being ready for contract award this month,” and added the department’s independent cost analysis unit must complete its program estimate before the award, she said.

The competition will culminate with a winner-take-all selection to build as many as 20 new warheads after a “Critical Design Review” scheduled for no later than 2026, a date the agency hopes to accelerate.

The new warheads are intended to crash into and destroy incoming missiles from an adversary such as North Korea and Iran.

They would be installed on missile interceptors based in Alaska, adding to 44 with earlier model warheads already in place in silos there and in California.

The “Next Generation Interceptor” is intended to correct the mistakes of a failed warhead program that spanned the Obama and Trump administrations before it was canceled in August 2019 after $1.2 billion was spent on a project meant for deployment in 2023.

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