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GAO-03-324R 1 (2003-01-27)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadxfy0001 and id is 1 raw text is: I Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 January 27, 2003 The Honorable Howard L. Berman House of Representatives Subject: Missile Defense: Events Related to Contractor Selection for the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle Dear Mr. Berman: In February 2002, we issued a report regarding early tests of the sensors being developed for the exoatmospheric kill vehicle' (EKV) planned for use in missile defense programs.2 As described in that report, the Department of the Army, acting on behalf of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO)3 was administering two parallel research and development contracts for EKVs, one with Raytheon and one with Boeing. BMDO's plan was to conduct a competition between the two teams developing an EKV to select one for further development and flight testing. By 1997, BMDO had decided to use a Lead Systems Integrator (LSI) contractor to manage the National Missile Defense program, rather than using the Army for this purpose. Boeing was awarded the LSI contract in April 1998, and was directed to complete the competition to select an EKV contractor by February 1999. Thus, in its capacity as LSI, Boeing was tasked to select either Raytheon or another Boeing unit to build the EKV. For this report, we will refer to the Boeing unit serving as the LSI contractor as Boeing LSI, and to the Boeing unit competing for the EKV subcontract as Boeing EKV. 'The EKV is the intercept component of the former National Missile Defense program. The EKV is mounted on a defensive missile, is delivered by that missile to the midcourse (or exoatmospheric) phase of an incoming missile's trajectory, and uses a seeker in a separate flight package to guide and propel itself into an incoming enemy warhead, thus destroying the warhead above the earth's atmosphere. During our preparation of this report, the Missile Defense Agency announced, in September 2002, that it was pursuing concepts for a new-generation EKV. 2 See Missile Defense: Review of Allegations about an Early National Missile Defense Flight Test, GAO- 02-125 (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 28, 2002). 3 On January 2, 2002, BMDO was renamed the Missile Defense Agency. In addition, National Missile Defense and several other programs have recently been renamed. National Missile Defense is now referred to as the Ground-Based Midcourse System, which, together with Sea-Based Midcourse Systems, comprise the Midcourse Defense Segment. For this report, we will use the names in place at the time of these events. GAO-03-324R Missile Defense

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