From Defense Aerospace

 

Pentagon Contract Announcement

(Source; US Department of Defense; issued Jan. 30, 2008)

 

McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $73,707,908 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract (N00019-08-C-0021) for the system development and demonstration of the Harpoon Block III Missile Program.

 

Work will be performed in St. Charles, Mo. (92.12 percent); Lititz, Penn. (1.93 percent); Cedar Rapids, Iowa (.84 percent); Chatsworth, Calif. (.76 percent); Galena, Kan. (.49 percent); Lowell, Mass. (.42 percent); and various locations across the United States (3.44 percent), and work is expected to be completed in Aug. 2011.

 

Contract funds in the amount of $5,046,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.

 

The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.

 

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More on Harpoon Block III from the funding request docs:

 

"The Harpoon Block III Weapons System is intended to upgrade and expand the capabilities of the Navy’s only anti-ship, all weather missile to improve its precision in a congested, littoral environment. Modification of the RGM-84D Harpoon 1C baseline missile will provide for Global Positioning System (GPS) accuracy, target selectivity in a littoral environment, and in-flight

target position update solutions as well as positive terminal control. Specific improvements provide for significant target discrimination as well as minimized target-to-shore separation capability, Battle Hit Indications (BHI), connectivity with future network architecture, and Land Blanking capability. Harpoon Block III will provide for a concept of operations which will support existing ISR Platform target detection; target & weapon position update (ie. UAV, Helo, Fixed wing), and ISR Platform to Weapon Correlation Mapping. This development effort will lead to a procurement of 400 Harpoon Block III upgrade kits, beginning in FY 2009, that will retrofit existing Harpoon USN missile inventory."

From Defense Aerospace

 

Boeing Awarded Contract for Next-Generation Harpoon Block III Missile

(Source: Boeing Co.; issued Jan. 31, 2008)

 

ST. LOUIS --- The Boeing Company has been awarded a $73.7 million U.S. Navy contract to design and develop the Harpoon Block III missile, a next-generation weapon system that will enhance naval surface warfare capabilities.

 

The system design and development (SDD) contract will result in a kit upgrade program for existing Navy weapons that will return 800 enhanced surface- and air-launch Harpoon missiles and 50 ship-launch systems to the service's inventory.

 

"The start of SDD is a big milestone for the Harpoon program and is the first major development for the U.S. Navy on Harpoon for many years," said Jim Young, Jr., Boeing Harpoon Block III program manager. "Harpoon Block III will provide the warfighter with a capable, near-term solution to over-the-horizon, surface warfare threats."

 

Equipped with a new data-link system, Harpoon Block III will offer warfighters more control after the weapon is released, resulting in improved accuracy for littoral and open-ocean warfare. The Block III upgrade also positions the missile for future spiral developments, including extended range and vertical launch capabilities.

 

Harpoon Block III adds in-flight target updates, positive terminal control and connectivity with future network architectures to a proven missile that already provides autonomous, all-weather, over-the-horizon capability.

 

The surface-launch version of Harpoon Block III will achieve initial operational capability (IOC) in early 2011 with IOC of the air-launch version scheduled for later that year. The next major program milestones will be the Systems Requirements and Preliminary Design Reviews, both scheduled for 2008.

 

A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is one of the world's largest space and defense businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $32.1 billion business with 72,000 employees worldwide.