Northrop Grumman wins missile defense contract worth up to $3.9B

Falls Church-based Northrop Grumman Corp. and partner Raytheon Missiles & Defense were awarded a Missile Defense Agency contract worth up to $3.93 billion to perform work on the U.S. ballistic missile defense system, the agency announced Tuesday.

Part of an award of $1.6 billion in contracts through fiscal year 2022 to Northrop Grumman and Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin, Northrop and Raytheon will conduct risk reduction and technology development work in Arizona, Utah and Alabama on the Next Generation Interceptor program, part of the ground-based missile defense system that will protect the country from intercontinental ballistic missiles. The end of the contract, including flight test options, is in 2029, according to Northrop.

Lockheed will work with Aerojet Rocketdyne on its part of the contract in Alabama and California, which is worth up to $3.7 billion with option periods through 2025.

“We are honored to be selected by the MDA as prime contractor to develop the NGI system to protect our nation from advanced missile attacks,”  Scott Lehr, Northrop Grumman’s vice president and general manager of launch and missile defense, said in a statement. “There is a critical timeline for fielding this capability and our team brings together the industry’s top missile defense talent, agile design and manufacturing practices, and state-of-the-art operational factories to support the MDA and our nation’s defense against these evolving threats.”

Northrop Grumman employs more than 90,000 people and reported $33.8 billion in 2019 revenue.

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