The US Navy has awarded a contract worth up to $851m to Lockheed Martin for production and deployed system support for the navy’s Trident II D5 fleet ballistic missile (FBM) programme.
Under the contract, the company will provide D5 missile hardware production support and re-entry system hardware, as well as maintenance to support the operational readiness of missile systems deployed aboard the navy’s Trident II Ohio Class submarines.
In addition, Lockheed will also continue the D5 life extension support of the Ohio Class submarines, which includes upgrades to selected electronic components.
The D5 missile is a three-stage, solid-propellant, inertial-guided ballistic missile that can travel a nominal range of 4,000nm and carry multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicles.
Currently, the missile system is equipped on the US Navy’s Ohio Class submarines and the UK Royal Navy’s Vanguard Class submarines.
