Raytheon and Lockheed
Martin move forward in
developing smart bullets
for surface ship defense
February 23, 2016
ARLINGTON, Va., 23 Feb. 2016. Two U.S. defense prime contractors
are moving forward with a military surface ship defense research
project to design medium-caliber smart bullets that enable Navy
surface warships to ward off attacks from aircraft, missiles, and
fast attack boats bearing down from many different directions at once.
Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) in Arlington, Va., awarded two contract modifications
Friday for the second phase of the Multi Azimuth Defense Fast
Intercept Round Engagement System (MAD-FIRES) program.
DARPA awarded a $17.2 million MAD Fires contract to the Raytheon
Co. Missile Systems segment in Tucson, Ariz., and an $8.4 million
MAD FIRES contract to the Lockheed Martin Corp. Missiles and
Fire Control segment in Grand Prairie, Texas.
Attacks by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), missiles, small
planes, fast in-shore attack boats, and other maritime threats pose
a deadly and evolving threat to ships and other maritime vessels,
DARPA officials say.
These kinds of threats demand that Navy ships have access to
leaded -edge defensive capabilities -- specifically an ability to
engage multiple and diverse targets coming from a range of
directions and do so rapidly and with high precision using current
close-range shipboard gun systems.
The goal of MAD-FIRES is to develop enabling technologies for
a medium-caliber guided projectile that would combine the
guidance, precision, and accuracy of missiles with the speed,
rapid-fire capability, and large ammunition capacity of bullets.
MAD-FIRES aims to advance the state-of-the-art in defensive gun
systems by creating a new, low-cost technological foundation for
guided, gun-launched projectiles.
The program seeks to incorporate enhanced ammunition rounds able
to alter their flight path in real time to stay on target, and a capacity
to target, track, and engage several fast-approaching targets
simultaneously and re-engage any targets that survive the initial
engagement.
Raytheon and Lockheed Martin previously won MAD Fires
phase-0 contracts will define concepts and establish a modeling
and simulation baseline for the program. The contracts announced
Friday involve phase-1 of the MAD-Fires program, which involves
preliminary risk-reduction demonstrations.
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It will during this phase that DARPA researchers decide whether to proceed
to Phases 2 and 3. Phase 2 would further advance MAD-FIRES design work
and conduct additional risk reduction demonstrations. Phase 3 would
demonstrate the final MAD-FIRES technologies in an operational military
environment.
Friday's contract modification would bring Raytheon's total MAD-FIRES
contract value to $18.9 million. Lockheed Martin's modification would
bring the value of the company's MAD-FIRES contract to $14.9 million
-- of which Lockheed Martin is responsible for paying $5 million, with
DARPA picking up the remainder.
On these contract modification Raytheon will do the work in Tucson,
Ariz.; Cambridge, Mass.; Gainesville, Va.; East Amherst, N.Y.; and
McKinney, Texas. Lockheed Martin will do its work in Grand Prairie,
Texas; and Gainesville, Va. Both companies will be finished by February 2017.
For more information contact Raytheon Missile Systems online at
www.raytheon.com, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control at www.lockheedmartin.com/us/mfc, or DARPA at www.darpa.mil.
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