Washington, Dec 10: Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin was awarded a contract potentially worth 4.6 billion dollars to develop targets and countermeasures for the Pentagon's missile defence programme, the Defence Department has announced.
The targets and countermeasures will be used to test the gamut of missile defence systems under development, the Pentagon said yesterday.
Some experts have criticized the Pentagon for moving to develop and field a missile defence system against long range missiles without testing it against realistic targets with more than one decoy.
Lockheed Martin said it will develop targets that represent the evolving missile threat faced by the United States.
"These target systems will enable the US to realistically, reliably and affordably test the full range of ballistic missile defence systems under development," it said in a statement.



The contract was for 210 million dollars for engineering, design and management of the programme over the next four years.



But it has a potential value of 4.6 billion dollars over the next 10 years if all options are exercised, the Pentagon said.


Bureau Report