Teams cleared to bid for US Army missile contract

BAE Systems, a Boeing-Northrop Grumman team, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon have been cleared to bid for US Army Common Missile research contracts.

The contractors have pursued the missile development work since last year, but the alliance between Boeing and Northrop Grumman comes as a surprise.

The US Army says a Common Missile programme request for proposals will be issued before the end of this month, with up to four contracts awarded in July. Meanwhile, the Boeing-Northrop Grumman team, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon have been selected to develop a multimode seeker for the Common Missile.

The next-generation weapon would be fired from attack helicopters and ground vehicles, replacing the Raytheon BGM-71 TOW and Lockheed MartinAGM-114 Hellfire anti-armour missiles by around 2010.

Preliminary design and risk reduction will be followed by a 48-month engineering and manufacturing development phase involving a sole contractor.

Source: Flight International