Boeing Wins Missile Defense Contract

Boeing Co. has won a $928-million contract to field the ground-based component of a planned U.S. missile defense shield, the Pentagon announced Monday.

The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency said the cost-plus-award fee would cover construction and non-construction efforts at a missile defense site in Huntsville, Ala., in fiscal years 2005 through 2007.

The Pentagon this weekend scrapped the first flight test in nearly two years of the planned missile defense shield because of bad weather.

President Bush in 2002 announced a goal to field a rudimentary ground-based missile shield by the end of 2004, but the timetable may slip somewhat, Pentagon chief weapons buyer Michael Wynne said last week.

The Pentagon is spending $10 billion a year on the project.

Chicago-based Boeing is the main contractor for the initial elements of the ground-based system. Northrop Grumman Corp. is providing the command and control piece. Lockheed Martin Corp. is providing a booster rocket.