Lockheed Martin Awarded FALCON Phase IIA

Defense Daily 08/09/04
author: Lorenzo Cortes

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) last week awarded Lockheed Martin [LMT] a $7.6 million increment of a larger $8.4 million contract over three competing bids for prototypes in the Phase IIA, Task 2 portion of the Force Application and Launch from the Continental U.S. (FALCON) program. The Lockheed Martin bid beat bids from other Task 2 participants--Andrews Space,
Northrop Grumman [NOC] and Boeing [BA].

FALCON is divided in two tasks. Nine contractors were picked to begin contract negotiations for the Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) portion of FALCON, called Task 1. The contractors are: AirLaunch, LLC, Reno, Nev.; Andrews Space,; Exquadrum, Victorville, Calif.; KT Engineering, Huntsville, Ala.; Lockheed Martin's Space Systems Co., Michoud Operations, New Orleans; Microcosm, El Segundo, Calif.; Orbital Sciences [ORB], Dulles, Va.; Schafer Corp., Chelmsford, Mass.; and Space Exploration Technologies, El Segundo (Defense Daily, Nov. 18).

Task 2 focused on a hypersonic weapon system. Initial study contracts for the hypersonic weapon system ranged between $1.2 million and $1.5 million, and include concepts for three vehicles: The Common Aero Vehicle (CAV), which will be an unpowered, maneuverable, hypersonic glide vehicle capable of carrying about 1,000 pounds of munitions with a range of about 3,000 nautical miles; the Enhanced Common Aero Vehicle will be a more advanced design offering greater range and maneuverability; and the reusable Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle will be an autonomous aircraft capable of taking off from a conventional military runway and striking targets 9,000 nautical miles away in under two hours.

Despite the planning for funding weaponry on FALCON technology, the FY '05 Defense Appropriations Act explicitly prohibits a weaponized CAV. House and Senate conferees worried that no safeguards were in place to guarantee that nations possessing nuclear weapons capabilities would not misinterpret the intent or use of FALCON/CAV technology. The appropriations act funded FALCON at $29.1 million in FY '05, but limited funding to the launch of micro-satellites or other satellite launch requirements.