U.S. Army orders more THAAD equipment from Lockheed Martin

DALLAS, 18 Aug. 2012. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has awarded Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] a $150 million contract to produce terminal high altitude area defense (THAAD) Weapon System launchers and fire control and communications equipment for the U.S. Army. The contract includes 12 launchers, two fire control and communications units, and associated support equipment. This contract will provide six launchers for THAAD Battery 5 and an additional three launchers each to Batteries 1 and 2. These deliveries will bring all Batteries to the standard six launcher configuration. Ground hardware from this award will be delivered to Fort Bliss, Texas. A production contract for the first two Batteries was awarded to Lockheed Martin in late 2006, while contracts for Batteries 3 and 4 were awarded in 2011.

Since 2005, the THAAD program has completed 12 flight tests, with nine-for-nine intercepts. The latest mission was an operational test conducted at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, by THAAD soldiers from Alpha-4 (A-4), 11th Air Defense Artillery Imperial Brigade of the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command. During that mission, two THAAD interceptors destroyed two different targets.

Final assembly, integration and testing of production equipment will take place at Lockheed Martin’s manufacturing facility in Camden, Ark. Delivery of equipment for Battery 5 will be completed by 2015. This new production award will be instrumental in sustaining personnel at the Camden facility.

THAAD is a missile defense system that can intercept targets in both the endo- and exo-atmospheres. An element of the nation’s Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS), THAAD is a MDA program, with the program office located in Huntsville, Ala.