Lockheed Martin won a modification to a previously=awarded contract to work on advanced design and development for the Trident II Life Extension 2 Alteration, the Department of Defense said Friday.
The cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to the existing contract for the sea-based leg of the nuclear triad was awarded on a sole source basis, according to a press release by the DoD and the Navy
An obligation of $382.1 million in weapons procurement funds and $1 million in research, development, technical, and engineering funds, all from the fiscal 2025 Navy budget, will go toward the award. No funds would expire at the end of the fiscal year.
Work under this contract is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2030, the release said.
“The second life extension of the Trident D5 missile will enable the United States and United Kingdom, through the Polaris Sales Agreement, to maintain credibility deterring evolving threats,” Jerry Mamrol, vice president of Fleet Ballistic Missiles at Lockheed Martin, said in a company press release. “We are proud to continue our critical partnership with the U.S. Navy to take deterrence into this new era.”
The Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missile is a three-stage missile currently deployed on U.S. Ohio-class and U.K. Vanguard-class submarines and will be carried aboard U.S. Columbia-class and U.K. Dreadnought-class submarines in the future. According to Lockheed Martin, the aim of the Trident missile is to ensure the Columbia-class submarine’s strategic weapons system is credible until 2084.
During a deployment, the missile would be tipped with either legacy W88 warheads – a Trident can carry up to eight — or the W76 warhead designed by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The newest versions of the warhead, the W76-2, are manufactured at the Pantex Plant in Texas.
