The U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin a $362 million contract to recapitalize 50 of the U.S. Army’s Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) launchers. The M270A2 Launcher version will be an upgraded version of the M270 with improvements such as the installation of new Launcher Loader Modules (LLM), the installing of the Improved Armored Cab (IAC) and the installing of a Common Fire Control System (CFCS). The M270A2 Launcher quantities are not to exceed 385 units, according to the contract. The U.S. Army’s MLRS recapitalization effort will eventually upgrade its existing fleet of 225 MLRS M270A1 launchers, and 160 decommissioned M270A0’s slated for de-militarization, to M270A2s.
In partnership with the Red River Army Depot, these launchers will be completely refurbished as “zero time” launchers with new engines, transmissions, Launcher-Loader Modules, Improved Armored Cabs and the new Common Fire Control System. This contract will extend the operational life of the MLRS Launcher to 2025 by addressing obsolescence issues, upgrading and installing the Launcher Loader Module (LLM), and installing the Improved Armored Cab (IAC) and a Common Fire Control System (CFCS).
MLRS is a heavy tracked mobile launcher, transportable via C-17 and C-5 aircraft, that fires Guided MLRS rockets and Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles. MLRS will also be able to fire the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) and Extended-Range GMLRS rockets, both currently in development.For more than 40 years, Lockheed Martin has been the leading designer and manufacturer of long-range, surface-to-surface precision strike solutions, providing highly reliable, combat-proven systems like MLRS, High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), ATACMS and GMLRS to domestic and international customers.
The Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) is a long range precision incendiary solution that widens the capabilities of armed forces. Highly effective and accurate over long ranges, the GLSDB is designed to meet the evolving needs of today´s and tomorrow´s armed forces. Capable of conducting reverse slope engagements and defeating a range of targets, from hardened facilities to soft-skinned assets, the GLSDB adds another dimension to armed forces´ capabilities. Developed in partnership with Boeing, the GLSDB is a flexible, precise and reliable weapon that exemplifies the value of Saab´s thinking edge.
SAAB Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB)
SAAB Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB)
With 360 degrees target engagement ability, the GLSDB provides commanders and planners with a flexible weapon which complements existing ballistic trajectory weapons. The weapon builds upon the successful Small Diameter Bomb Increment (SDB I) and the Multiple Launch Rocket System rockets.
The SDB is a 250-pound class weapon with an Advance Anti-Jam Global Positioning System-aided Intertial Navigation System, combined with a multipurpose penetrating blast-and-fragmentation warhead and a programmable electronic fuze. The GLSDB provides:
Increased range
Accuracy to within one metre
All angle, all aspect attack – even targets behind the launch point
Multiple rockets to act against multiple targets, with near simultaneous impact
All weather, 24/7 capability
Terrain avoidance, such as mountains
Cave breaching capability
Launches from hidden or protected positions to avoid detection
Programmable fuze for impact and delay fuzing for deep penetration or proximity height-of-burst
SDB Focused Lethality Munition (FLM) variant is also an option for low collateral damage
Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) is a United States Army proving ground and one of the largest military installations in the world. It is a subordinate command of the Army Test and Evaluation Command. Featuring six airfields, nearly 2,000 miles of restricted airspace, 240 miles of road courses, and one of the longest overland artillery ranges in the nation, Yuma Test Center is the Army’s center for testing nearly every item in the ground combat arsenal. Weapon systems tested include artillery and mortars, armored vehicles, helicopters and unmanned aircraft, cargo and personnel air drop systems, countermeasures to the threat of roadside bombs, and much more. Located in southwestern La Paz County and western Yuma County in southwestern Arizona, U.S., about 30 miles (48 km) north-east of the city of Yuma, it encompasses 1,307.8 square miles (3,387.2 km²) in the northwestern Sonoran Desert.
Yuma Test Center’s Ground Combat Systems test-fires a M109A6 Paladin
The proving ground conducts tests on nearly every weapon in the ground combat arsenal. Nearly all the long-range artillery testing for U.S. ground forces takes place here in an area almost completely removed from urban encroachment and noise concerns. Restricted airspace controlled by the test center amounts to over 2,000 square miles (5,000 km2). Yuma Proving Ground has the longest overland artillery range (40 miles or 64 kilometres) in the nation, the most highly instrumented helicopter armament test range in the Department of Defense, over 200 miles (300 km) of improved road courses for testing tracked and wheeled military vehicles, over 600 miles (1,000 km) of fiber-optic cable linking test locations, and the most modern mine and demolitions test facility in the western hemisphere. Realistic villages and road networks representing urban areas in Southwest Asia have been constructed and are used for testing counter-measures to the threat of roadside bombs.
Royal Danish Army Piranha V Infantry Fighting Vehicle conducts testing at Yuma Proving Ground
The General Motors Desert Proving Ground – Yuma opened at the proving ground in late July 2009. General Motors built the facility at a cost of more than $100 million after closing its desert automotive test facility in Mesa, Arizona, that had been in operation since 1953. The new facility allows Army automotive testers to test their wheeled vehicles all year-round. It is estimated that the track can be used to test about 80 percent of the Army’s wheeled vehicle fleet. More than 3,000 people, mostly civilians, work at the proving ground, which is the largest employer in Yuma County. In a typical year, over 500,000 artillery, mortar and missile rounds are fired, 36,000 parachute drops take place, 200,000 miles (320,000 km) are driven on military vehicles, and over 4,000 air sorties are flown from the proving ground’s Laguna Army Airfield. About 10 percent of the proving ground’s workload is training. In a typical year, dozens of units come to the facility for realistic desert training, especially before deploying overseas.
Marines prepare to breach a building during a mock helicopter raid at Yuma Proving Ground
Yuma Proving Ground’s clean air, low humidity, skimpy rainfall—only about 3 inches (76 mm) per year—and annual average of 350 sunny days, add up to almost perfect testing and training conditions. Urban encroachment and noise concerns are nonexistent problems, unlike at many other military installations. Of the four extreme natural environments recognized as critical in the testing of military equipment, three fall under the management authority of Yuma Proving Ground. Realistic natural environment testing ensures that American military equipment performs as advertised, wherever deployed around the world. The proving ground manages military equipment and munitions testing at three locations: The Cold Regions Test Center at Fort Greely, Alaska; the Tropic Regions Test Center operating in Panama, Honduras, Suriname, and Hawaii; and at the Yuma Test Center located at Yuma Proving Ground. The common link between these test centers is “environmental testing,” which makes the proving ground the Army’s environmental test expert.
U.S. Army testing of the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) via an AH-64 Apache Longbow at Cibola Range, Yuma Proving Ground
Since its early days, Yuma Proving Ground has been a desert environmental test center for all types of military equipment and materiel. However, developmental and a variety of other types of testing of artillery systems and ammunition, aircraft armament and targeting systems, mobility equipment, and air delivery systems, not necessarily desert environmental-related, now comprise the bulk of the workload. Yuma Proving Ground tests improvised explosive devices, commonly known as IEDs, the number-one killer of American service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hundreds of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles fly at the proving ground each year from the six airfields located at the proving ground, as do helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft conducting personnel and cargo parachute drops. A heavy investment in technology and a highly skilled soldier-civilian workforce makes the proving ground a significant social and economic component of the local community. Many friendly foreign nations take advantage of the test center’s excellent facilities and highly skilled workforce.
JSC Tactical Missiles Corporation (Корпорация Тактическое Ракетное Вооружение) or KTRV is a major Russian weapon (especially missiles) manufacturer. Headquarters in Korolyov, Moscow Oblast. Tactical Missiles Corporation joint stock company (JSC) was established in accordance with Federal Target Program such as “Restructuring and development of Defense Industry Complex” (2002-2006 years) and Presidential Decree № 84 dated 24 January 2002. The Corporation as an integrated structure was formed on the basis of a reorganized federal state unitary enterprise “State research and production centre “Zvezda-Strela” (Korolev) in “Tactical Missiles Corporation”JSC. During such reorganization process the Corporation received shares from enterprises included in Defense Industry Complex. Establishment registration of the Corporation was finished in March 2003.
Tactical Missiles Corporation (KTRV)
Tactical Missiles Corporation was founded on the basis of Zvezda-Strela by the Decree of Russian President №84, signed on January 24, 2002. Zvezda-Strela was a major designer and producer of military missile systems, and included the Zvezda Experimental Design Bureau (OKB), a serial production design bureau (SKB), the main Strela plant, and machine building plants in Kostroma and Bendery (Moldova). It was formerly part of the missile-industry grouping Spetstekhnika (Special Equipment). The structure of Tactical Missiles Corporation was expanded by subsequent decrees №591 on May 9, 2004 and №930 on July 20, 2007.
For the first time, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, in partnership with the Boeing-led industry team, tested two Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicles (EKV), which destroyed a threat representative intercontinental ballistic missile during a test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System, or GMD. One EKV intercepted the target and the other gathered test data in what is known as a “two-shot salvo” engagement. The EKV system protects the U.S. against long-range ballistic missile attacks by destroying incoming threats safely outside the Earth’s atmosphere. The historic test mirrored a real-life scenario where launching more than one interceptor ensured destruction of the threat far away from population centers. If the first kill vehicle makes impact, the second can divert to other material.
Raytheon kill vehicle hits ICBM target in first dual-salvo test
After receiving tracking and targeting data from Raytheon’s Sea-Based X-band radar and AN/TPY-2 radar, the EKV identified the threat, discriminated between the target and countermeasures, maneuvered into the target’s path and destroyed it using “hit-to-kill” technology. Both radars play critical roles in supporting the GMD system. It was the eleventh intercept for the GMD program overall, and the second intercept of an ICBM. The Raytheon kill vehicle family has a combined record of over 40 successful space intercepts. “The system is among the most complex, and serves as the first line of ballistic missile defense for the United States,” said Dr. Taylor W. Lawrence, Raytheon Missile Systems president.
Kill vehicles destroy long-range ballistic missiles in space. Launched atop missiles, kill vehicles use sensors, lenses and rocket thrusters to pick out warheads and steer into their paths. It guides to the target and, with pinpoint precision, destroys it using nothing more than the force of a massive collision. No traditional warhead is necessary. Raytheon has decades of experience building kill vehicles, along with the world’s premier laboratories, factories and workforce for these specialized weapon systems. Raytheon is the only company in the world working on four different kill vehicle programs at the same time, and its experts are revolutionizing the role kill vehicles play in missile defense.
The Boeing Co., Huntsville, Alabama, was awarded $4,141,315,338 (contract modification HQ0147-19-C-0004 P00001), partially definitizing the $6,560,000,000 undefinitized contract action (UCA) issued Jan. 31, 2018, on contract HQ0147-12-C-0004, Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Development and Sustainment Contract (DSC). The UCA extended the DSC period of performance from January 2018 through December 2023, and added the requirements to execute the GMD portion of the presidential mandated and congressionally enacted Missile Defeat and Defense Enhancements. This effort includes delivery of a new missile field with 20 silos and two additional silos in a previously constructed missile field at Fort Greely, Alaska.
The MDA is deferring the production of the 20 additional Ground Based Interceptors (GBIs) (estimated not to exceed (NTE) value of $1,300,000,000) at this time due to the delay associated with not meeting the entrance criteria for the Redesigned Kill Vehicle (RKV) critical design review. A portion of the effort to deliver 11 boost vehicles for flight tests and spares (estimated NTE value of $474,000,000) will remain under the UCA at this time. This modification brings the total cumulative value of the contract, including options, to $10,799,794,123. The definitized scope of work includes technical capabilities to expand and improve a state-of-the-art missile defense system to ensure defensive capabilities remain both relevant and current, to include but not limited to:
— Boost Vehicle (BV) development;
— providing GBI assets for labs and test events;
— development, integration, testing and deployment of ground systems software builds to address emerging threats;
— development and fielding of upgraded launch support equipment;
— expanded systems testing through all ground and flight testing;
— cyber security support and testing; and, operations and support via performance-based logistics approach.
Boeing wins $4 Billion order for new Missile Defense Silo Field
Work will be performed at multiple locations, including Huntsville, Alabama; Fort Greely, Alaska; Vandenberg Air Force Base, California; Schriever AFB, Colorado; Peterson AFB, Colorado; Cheyenne Mountain Air Station, Colorado; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Tucson, Arizona; other contractor designated prime, subcontractor, and supplier operating locations; and other government designated sites. The definitized effort will be performed by an industry team consisting of The Boeing Co., Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Raytheon Co., and many other subcontractors.
This acquisition was executed on a sole-source basis under the statutory authority of 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1), as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1, only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. Boeing, as the GMD DSC prime contractor, along with its subcontractors, collectively have demonstrated special capabilities and/or expertise and that no other companies would have been able to satisfactorily perform the required services without unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency’s requirements. Fiscal 2018 and 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $26,951,213 were obligated at the time of award. The Missile Defense Agency, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity.
Saab has received an order to deliver the Mk II missile for RBS 70 to the Army of the Czech Republic. The deliveries will take place in 2019. The order was placed by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), responsible for acquisitions for NATO members. The Czech Republic is a user of the RBS 70 as well as the new RBS 70 NG system, both systems are compatible with the Mk II missile.
“Through the order from NSPA, we see NATO’s continued interest in our missile systems. The Mk II missile is a capable missile with an altitude coverage of 4 km and a range of 7 km,” says Görgen Johansson, head of Saab business area Dynamics.
The Saab portfolio of short-range ground-based air defence missile systems includes the RBS 70 and the latest version, RBS 70 NG. The RBS 70 system has an impressive track-record on the market with more than 1,600 launchers and over 18,000 missiles delivered to nineteen countries.
Saab to Deliver RBS 70 Mk II Missiles to the Czech Army
