Tuesday May 4, 3:22 pm ET
WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) - The Pentagon has approved the next phase of the Joint Common Missile program, paving the way for a contract award this month that could eventually be worth about $6 billion, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
Chicago-based Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA - News), teamed with Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC - News), is vying with Raytheon Co. (NYSE:RTN - News) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT - News) for the lucrative contract to replace Hellfire and Maverick missiles on Army, Navy and Marine Corps aircraft.
Britain's defense ministry has also expressed interest in the missile program.
Cheryl Irwin, spokeswoman for Michael Wynne, the Pentagon's acting acquisitions chief, said he approved the program's readiness for entrance into the "System Development and Demonstration," (SDD) phase after an April 22 meeting.
That means the Army, which has been leading the program, can proceed with its plan to pick one of the three industry teams as prime contractor to build prototypes of the new missiles this month, said Army spokesman Maj. Gary Tallman.
The Army has earmarked about $750 million for research and development of the new weapon through 2008, with current plans calling for the start of low-rate initial production in 2009.
John Pike at Virginia-based think tank global security.org said whichever company won the SDD contract was expected to maintain the lead role in the program in coming years.
In the SDD phase, the company would finalize its design and build enough prototype missiles for testing to ensure it could meet all the military's performance standards, he said.
Pike said the company that won the contract also stood to benefit from foreign sales in the future, since the missiles the JCM will replace are very popular overseas.
JCM is being developed to replace the Longbow/Hellfire missile on several rotary-wing platforms and the Maverick missile on the F/A-18.
The long-term U.S. production run is estimated at 54,000 missiles, according to industry experts, who say the total contract could be valued at around $6 billion.