Reuters:
Lockheed Martin Corp has won a contract valued at $784 million to build a new long-range radar that the U.S. Missile Defense Agency considers “critically important” to improving its ability to protect the U.S. homeland, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
Lockheed, the Defense Department’s No. 1 supplier, beat out Raytheon Co and Northrop Grumman Corp to win the contract to design and build the new Long Range Discrimination Radar.
U.S. officials have said the radar, which will be built in Clear, Alaska and is due to start operating in 2020, will expand the ability of the U.S. military to detect and respond to potential missile launches from North Korea.
Lockheed said it drew on its experience building Aegis radar systems for the Navy and a separate Aegis Ashore site in Romania, as well as its work on a variety of other missile defense programs in shaping its winning bid.
Another key enabler, the company said, was its work on the Space Fence, another long-range radar system it is building for the U.S. Air Force that will detect, track, and catalog orbital objects to predict and prevent space-based collisions.
That system passed a critical design review last month, paving the way for the start of construction on Kwajalein Island – another remote location…
