$869M for USA’s FY06 Trident D-5 Nuclear SLBM Production and Support

Avoid this. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale, CA received an $869 million cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-plus-award-fee contract from the US Navy to provide funding for fiscal 2006 Trident II (D5) Missile Production and Deployed System Support. The Trident D-5 is a very accurate submarine-launched nuclear missile, and can be found on the US Navy’s Ohio Class SSBNs and the Royal Navy’s Vanguard Class SSBNs. It is the most survivable, capable, and important facet of these nations’ nuclear deterrent forces. So, where is all this money going? Didn’t America already buy the required missiles back in the 1980s-1990s, when it deployed the submarines? Ohio class, 6 tubes open GlobalSecurity.org notes many of these efforts trace back to the Trident II D-5 life extension (LE) program, which is required now that the service life of their Ohio Class SSBN submarines is being extended. This has a number of spinouts and effects. New Guidance & Electronics. The guidance system and missile electronics must be replaced due to aging and obsolescence issues. The Mk6 LE guidance system is a replacement for the aging Mk6 guidance systems, which used 1980s technology that isn’t in production any more. Nor is it really a good idea to […]