Boeing Wins $1B MDA Contract For Four Space Object Kill Vehicles

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has awarded Boeing with a $1.08 billion contract to provide development support for the Redesigned Kill Vehicle program.

This modification contract brings to the total award to more than $5 billion for work on the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, the US Department of defense announced in a press release Monday.

The covers payload development, payload ground testing, integration with the Ground-based Interceptor (GBI) and GMD Ground system, flight testing and four initial production RKVs for initial fielding, the release states.

Boeing will collaborate with Lockheed Martin and Raytheon to develop the RKV system and perform work in Alabama, Arizona, California and other government designated locations through June 30, 2022.

Kill vehicles destroy long-range ballistic missiles in space. Launched atop missiles, kill vehicles use sensors, lenses and rocket thrusters to pick out warheads and steer into their paths. The RKV is a component of the GMD system interceptors designed to destroy targets in high-speed collisions after separating from the booster rocket.