Boeing wins billion-dollar RKV follow-on contract

The Missile Defense Agency has awarded Boeing a sole-source $1.1 billion contract modification to continue developing the Redesigned Kill Vehicle.

According to a May 22 contract announcement, work on the effort will include "but is not limited to, payload development, payload ground testing, integration with the Ground-based Interceptor (GBI) and Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Ground system, flight testing and four initial production RKVs for initial fielding."

This week's award ups the total value of the contract from $4.7 billion to $5.8 billion, according to MDA.

"Boeing is the designer, developer, manufacturer and integrator of the GMD GBI," the announcement states, adding: "Boeing is the GMD development and sustainment contract prime contractor and [with] its subcontractors collectively has demonstrated special capabilities and/or expertise and no other company is known to be able to satisfactorily perform the required services or deliveries without unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency's requirements."

MDA has divided GMD modernization efforts into a series of sequential projects -- Enhanced Homeland Defense, which will culminate with fielding 44 interceptors; Robust Homeland Defense, which will encompass improvements through 2025; and further enhancements beginning in 2026 under Advanced Homeland Defense -- as part of an overall Development, Operations and Sustainment and Production (DOSP) effort.

"The plan for GBI deliveries under the DOSP would be part of the Robust Homeland Defense configuration," MDA spokesman Chris Johnson told Inside Defense in March, adding: "It would include the currently-under-development Redesigned Kill Vehicle with the intent to replace the CE-I EKVs that were fielded starting back in 2004."