Northrop Grumman tapped Bechtel National and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions to provide construction services and specialized transportation equipment for the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) intercontinental ballistic missile production program the aerospace giant hopes to win this summer.
Northrop Grumman is the only bidder for the estimated $25 billion engineering and manufacturing development contract to build and deploy GBSD missiles. Boeing, the only other eligible bidder, pulled out of the competition in July 2019.
On the Northrop Grumman team, Bechtel will provide “launch system design, construction and integration” for GBSD, while Kratos would provide “other vehicle transporters including the missile transporters and payload transporter,” according to a Northrop Grumman press release.
The Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent is the planned successor for the 1970s-vintage Minuteman III missiles that Boeing primed, and which make up the land-based leg of the U.S. nuclear triad. The Air Force plans to buy more than 600 GBSD missiles, including spares and test versions, and deploy 400 of them starting starting around 2030.
The new missiles will carry W87-1 warheads provided by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
The Air Force plans to award the GBSD engineering and manufacturing development contract between July and September of this year, according to the service’s 2021 budget request. Boeing has reserved its right to protest both the competition or a future award.
The company previously asked the Air Force to scrap the GBSD competition and force Boeing and Northrop Grumman to turn in a joint bid. The service has so far declined to do that. Instead, the Air Force has suggested there will be GBSD modernization and maintenance work for which Boeing could qualify.
Boeing has said the Air Force’s GBSD competition gave Northrop Grumman an unfair advantage, because the company owns its own solid-rocket motor business: the former Orbital ATK. The GBSD, like Minuteman III, will be powered by solid-fueled rocket stages.
