L-3 Interstate Electronics Corporation will provide data acquisition, processing, and analysis for the US and UK Navies’ Trident missile flight test missions under a $39.2m contract.
The Trident II D-5 is a three-stage, solid propellant, inertially guided ballistic missile with a range exceeding 4,000nm currently operating aboard the US Navy’s Ohio Class submarines and the Royal Navy’s Vanguard Class submarines
The US Navy recently test-fired two Trident-2 D5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles in September 2009 from the Ohio Class USS West Virginia in the Atlantic Ocean.
The navy used a test missile kit containing a wide range of range safety devices and flight telemetry instrumentation to convert the missiles into test configurations.
The contract has options which if exercised would make the total value to $49.4m.
Major work on the Trident flight test data work will be carried out in California and the rest in Texas, Ascension Island, Florida, and US Virgin Islands. Work is expected to be complete by September 2012.
