Key research for demo programme

The US Air Force has awarded an $8.9m contract to Boeing to study the key elements of a conventional prompt global strike missile demonstration.

The aim of the study is to help plan for a demonstration using a land-based Minotaur launch system and a vehicle designed to carry and deliver a range of conventional payloads at global ranges of under one hour of flight time.

‘The study will help refine requirements leading to a demonstration programme and will provide system-level analysis of one of the key concepts considered viable for a prompt global strike weapon,’ said Peggy Morse, director of Boeing’s Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Systems.

The study is scheduled for completion by June 2009.

Separately, The US Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) has signed a three-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Boeing to analyse existing and future joint military concepts.

USJFCOM and Boeing will use modelling, simulation and analysis techniques to optimise virtual and live demonstrations of military concepts and capabilities.

Boeing Advanced Systems’ AMSE division will lead the work to be carried out under the agreement.

The CRADA was signed as part of USJFCOM’s Suffolk, Virginia-based Joint Innovation and Experimentation Directorate.