Northrop bids on next phase of Army missile defense project

Northrop Grumman Corp. has submitted a bid for the second round of a competition to serve as the prime contractor for an integrated Army air and missile defense system.

Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Co. each won an 11-month contract in September 2008 to carry out the first phase of the Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System, according to company statements. The first phase involves design and development.

Northrop Grumman leads a team of more than a dozen technology companies and has developed a non-proprietary, open-architecture approach that is designed to connect Army systems with joint systems, thus allowing the services to operate as a single force, company officials said May 22. Northrop Grumman submitted its bid for the second round on May 4.

Northrop Grumman’s team includes Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., Harris Corp. and others, while Raytheon’s lineup consists of General Dynamics Corp., Teledyne Brown Engineering, IBM Corp. and others.

If Northrop Grumman is selected as the prime contractor, company officials said that they would establish program headquarters in Huntsville, Ala.

The Army’s goal is to create a network-centric group of systems comprising sensors, missile platforms and battle management systems. A number of existing missile systems would be linked together to give warfighters access to the best sensor or weapon to achieve a particular mission objective.

The Army is expected to make a single award for the program in late August.

Northrop Grumman ranks No. 3 on Washington Technology’s 2009 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.