The U.S. Air Force seeks an architecture that would allow the military branch’s future Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missile to adapt to technological changes and emerging threats.The service branch awarded Boeing and Northrop Grumman separate contracts worth up to $677.7 million combined to conduct technology maturation and risk reduction activities over a three-year period as part of the Minuteman III ICBM replacement program.
Both companies will aim to develop a “modular” systems architecture to help facilitate competition throughout the program’s life cycle, the Air Force said Tuesday.
The branch’s Nuclear Weapons Center aims to build and deliver an “integrated” GBSD system that will include command-and-control and launch segments through the missile acquisition effort.
