A Patriot PAC-3 Launch (Courtesy of Lockheed Martin). The Army is currently looking for lower-cost systems to
WASHINGTON — Northrop Grumman will become a second supplier of rocket motors for the in-demand PAC-3 interceptor while also increasing motor production for THAAD missiles, under a new pair of multiyear deals worth a combined $3 billion.
The deals, announced today, mark the first time Northrop has entered into a framework agreement with the Pentagon since the department began a push to use multiyear agreements to entice defense firms to invest their own capital to help scale munitions production.
Both agreements span a total of seven years, with the PAC-3 deal valued at $2 billion and the THAAD deal valued at $1 billion, Northrop said in a news release. Northrop’s Allegany Ballistics Laboratory in West Virginia will stand up production for solid rocket motors for PAC-3, while the additional THAAD motor production will take place at its San Diego plant.
“Building the Arsenal of Freedom requires robust, dynamic supply chains at every level of the industrial base,” Michael Duffey, the Pentagon’s top acquisition official, said in a statement. ” Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment. “”Framework agreements with munition components suppliers like Northrop Grumman are vital to accelerating the tripling of PAC-3 and quadrupling of THAAD interceptor production.”
