US Navy Project Aims To Counter Surface-To-Surface Missile Threats

Alliant Techsystems announced Wednesday it was awarded a $97 million contract for the design, development, integration, and test of the Multi-Stage Supersonic Target (MSST) by the Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, MD. With incentives, the value of the contract could reach $103 million.

The system design and development phase of the program is expected to be complete by October 2012. Once this phase of the program concludes, the company believes there could be follow-on production awards that generate significant business for ATK over the next decade.

The MSST will simulate a two-stage anti-ship cruise missile threat. It consists of a two-stage unmanned aerial target, a launcher, and associated support equipment. The US Navy will use MSST to evaluate the operational effectiveness of weapons/combat systems against next-generation surface-to-surface anti-ship missiles that cruise at subsonic speeds, initiate a separation event, and then make a supersonic dash to the intended target.

Under terms of the contract, ATK and its teammate, CEi of Sacramento, CA will build two engineering evaluation units and seven engineering development models. MSST is the foundation for ATK's targets and anti-ship missile strategy and is the result of an innovative design team and world class systems engineering tools deployed in ATK's virtual engineering network.

The MSST will provide threat representation for the developmental and operational testing of major weapon systems. Work will be performed in Sacramento and Woodland Hills, CA; Plymouth, MN; Elkton, MD; and Wichita, KS.

FMI: www.atk.com, www.navair.navy.mil