The Missile Defense Agency is bracing to tack on another year to the Ground-based Midcourse Defense development and sustainment contract, potentially extending Boeing's run as prime contractor for the marquee homeland defense weapon system to 14 consecutive years, even as the government is working to inject new competition into the GMD program.
In a March 3 notice, MDA disclosed a new delay in the GMD schedule that necessitates extending the development and sustainment contract -- which Boeing has held since 2011 -- beyond 2023, the planned termination point for the current contract’s period of performance. At the heart of the revised schedule is a change of plans to the GMD test schedule, now dubbed the GMD Ground Test Replan.
“The Missile Defense Agency is conducting market research for the Ground Based Midcourse Defense Program Ground Test Replan,” states the notice. “If no alternate sources are identified, the Government intends to issue a modification on the Development and Sustainment Contract . . . to . . . Boeing.”
Boeing currently leads an industry team that owns the GMD contract, originally awarded in 2011 to provide end-to-end development and sustainment of the system. The new MDA action promises to increase the total size of the GMD contract above the potential $11 billion value between 2011 and 2023.
MDA Director Vice Adm. Jon Hill last month approved a change to the agency’s ground test plans by pushing into 2024 GMD tests that were previously slated to be completed by 2023, according to the notice.
Specifically, Hill on Jan. 10 approved a change to the GMD schedule that adds at least 11 months to the schedule to allow for new delays to key tests needed to assess improved GMD performance against Asia-Pacific threats from a varying range of attacks, including new hardware and software improvements.
MDA, according to the notice, is delaying Ground Test Integrated-08b -- the second part of a two-test set that in 2020 was originally slated to be a single test called GTI-08. The first part, GT-08a test, was delayed for reasons “beyond the incumbent contractor’s control [and] drove adjustments to follow-on ground tests,” states MDA’s notice.
As a result, MDA needs a contractor to continue GMD work that Boeing was expected to be able to complete in 2023, such as “execute GTD-08b and complete analysis leading to Operational Capability Baseline approval of [Missile Defense System] Increment 6B.2,” according to the notice.
MDA had planned to retain Boeing as prime contractor for GMD through December 2023 to complete delivery of a planned upgrade of the GMD system that is part of an overarching Ballistic Missile Defense System enhancement called Capability Increment 6C/7 (Expanded Regional and Homeland Defense).
“Based on currently available information, MDA believes that only Boeing is capable of providing the required services without substantial duplication of cost that is not expected to be recovered through competition and unacceptable delays,” states the notice.
As the GMD prime, Boeing -- along with Northrop Grumman -- oversees development, integration, testing, operation and sustainment as well as ground system elements and supports operation and sustainment and system engineering testing. Boeing integrates a Raytheon-built exoatmospheric kill vehicle on a booster stack built by Northrop Grumman.
The four major subcontractors on the current GMD DSC contract are Northrop Grumman Mission Systems; Northrop Grumman Innovation Solutions; Raytheon Missile Systems; and Vigor.
In 2019, MDA began looking into the early 2020s and thinking about how best to structure future contracts to manage the GMD system, contemplating whether to bundle end-to-end development and sustainment of the interceptor fleet into a single deal or break it up into a package of smaller competitive contracts.
Last April, MDA selected Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to develop competing designs for a Next-Generation Interceptor, a follow-on guided missile to the current Ground-based Interceptor fleet.
Last year, MDA decided on a new GMD Future Acquisition Strategy that will compete a new GMD Weapon System program and a project called Systems Integration, Test and Readiness.
The winners of these projects will take responsibility for GMD Capability Increment 7 and will execute that work concurrently with the final stage of development of Capability Increment 6C/7.