Boeing

The Boeing Company has been selected by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) for a potentially far-reaching study contract that could lead to the Company's selection as the lead systems integrator (LSI) for the National Missile Defense System.

This initial $8 million concept definition contract will define an integrated National Missile Defense (NMD) system that would be designed, developed, integrated and tested over a three-year period. The Boeing concept will compete against other contractor proposals for the execution phase that is to begin in the March/April 1998 time frame. It will include an Integrated System Test in 1999, and culminate in a Deployment Readiness Review in 2000.

John McLuckey, executive vice president of Boeing Defense & Space Group, called the award "a significant step in positioning Boeing for the next phase of this major program."

McLuckey said "Our team has been preparing for this challenge and is ready to perform. We are honored to be involved in a program that promises to be so enormously important to the future of our country." The NMD lead systems integrator is to be responsible for designing and integrating a series of individual programs into an overall NMD system, which would include the following :

• Ground Based Interceptor (GBI)
• Battle Management Command, Control and Communications (BMC3)
• Ground Based Radars (GBR)
• Upgraded Early Warning Radars (UEWR)
• Forward Based X-Band Radars (FBXB)

"The Boeing team has an unmatched history of integrating large complex military, commercial and space systems, and is already at work developing systems relevant to the NMD-LSI contract," said John Peller, Boeing LSI program director.

"For instance, Boeing is responsible for some of the largest systems integration programs in the world, including the International Space Station, Space Shuttle, Advanced Warning and Control System (AWACS), and commercial aircraft such as the Boeing 777," Peller added. "Our innovative design, rapid prototyping, end-to-end simulations, and commercial processes developed for those programs will be applied to NMD."

Work on the concept definition contract will begin immediately and is led by the Boeing Systems Development Center, Seal Beach, Calif. The Space Systems Division of Boeing North American, Inc. in Downey, Calif., will serve as the lead implementing division.

As a concept definition prime contractor, Boeing will be responsible for overall System Engineering and Integration (SE&I) and Ground Based Interceptor (GBI) Integrated Product Teams. McDonnell Douglas, Huntington Beach, Calif., will be the Integrated Product Team (IPT) lead for Deployment and Initial Sustainment, and System Test and Evaluation for the NMD system. McDonnell Douglas has extensive experience in the areas of booster integration (Delta launch vehicle), integration on Sentry and Spartan anti-missile programs, GBI design and development, and SE&I for the Tomahawk cruise missile program.

Other key team members are XonTech, Van Nuys, Calif., as sensors IPT lead, with extensive expertise in ground based radar systems; W. J. Schafer Associates, Chelmsford, Mass., as IPT lead for battle Management/Command, Control, and Communications (BMC3); and Teledyne Brown, Huntsville, Ala.,which today operates the U.S. Army's Integrated System Test Facility in Huntsville, and developed plans for BMDO in support of deployment and site activation planning for NMD.