Lockheed Martin is poised to effectively nab a third major hypersonic booster contract, locking in a pivotal role on all three legs of the Defense Department's conventionally armed, hypersonic boost-glide programs after the Navy today announced plans to adapt its in-development submarine-launched rocket for Army use. The Navy's Strategic Systems Programs, in a solicitation posted on Federal Business Opportunities, disclosed the service intends to negotiate with Lockheed Martin, Littleton, CO, for services through 2023 for work on what the Army calls its Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon. "This procurement provides for the design, development, build and integration of large diameter rocket motors, associated missile body flight articles, and related support equipment for the Army IRCPS WS," the solicitation states, referring to an intermediate-range Conventional Prompt Strike weapon system. The Navy's SSP office manages the Trident Ⅱ D-5 submarine-launched ballistic missile program and -- by order of the Pentagon's acquisition executive last September - will take responsibility Oct. 1 for management of the Conventional Prompt Strike program from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which has owned the program since its inception in 2008. Last fall, the Army launched its Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon program to develop a capability to punch through contested, anti-access environments -- a big-ticket acquisition project that will re-purpose a Navy hypersonic booster being developed by Lockheed Martin for use on a road-mobile system, giving ground forces a conventionally armed strategic system for the opening salvos of a major fight.
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