Boeing Co., ST. LOUIS: The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) Systems a $25.2 million contract to support the Minuteman Force Development Evaluation flight test program at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The Minuteman ICBM is a three-stage, solid-fueled strategic missile.
The Boeing team will provide hardware for command destruct operations — a system that destroys a launch vehicle when vehicle performance degrades enough to be a safety hazard — and the transmission of missile data during flight tests. A Boeing-designed flight instrumentation wafer will enable the Air Force to obtain data to evaluate the missile's in-flight reliability and accuracy.
First deployed in the 1960s, there are now 500 Minuteman ICBMs deployed in the nation's arsenal.
“This contract is a tribute to the expertise of our more than 500 ICBM employees in Utah, California, Ohio and at the Air Force's ICBM field locations,” said Dave Hicks, Boeing's Anaheim, Calif.-based ICBM program manager. “Our employees take great pride in supporting the Air Force by providing this flight test instrumentation wafer.”
The contract calls for work to be completed by January 2010.
A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is one of the world's largest space and defense businesses. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $30.8 billion business. It provides network-centric system solutions to its global military, government, and commercial customers. It is a leading provider of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems; the world's largest military aircraft manufacturer; the world's largest satellite manufacturer; a foremost provider of advanced concepts and technologies; a leading provider of space-based communications; the primary systems integrator for U.S. missile defense; NASA's largest contractor; and a global leader in sustainment solutions and launch services.
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