The U.S. Defense Department has awarded a rich military contract to Lockheed Martin, agreeing to pay more than $3.9 billion for a missile-defense system. The deal calls for a maximum of 110 high-altitude interceptor missiles for the United States, and 192 versions of the missiles for export to the United Arab Emirates.
Update at 2:30 p.m. ET: Number Of Missiles Adjusted
The folks at Lockheed Martin have gotten in touch to clarify that the deal calls for 110 missiles for the U.S. government, as well as 192 for the UAE. They also noted that they've conducted one more flight test of the system. We've updated the information in this post.
Our original post continues:
The system, called THAAD for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, is a project of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency in Huntsville, Ala. It would be used to track hostile missiles, with the goal of destroying them at altitudes that extend beyond the Earth's atmosphere. It can use data from the Navy's Aegis guided missile cruisers, satellites or other sources.
The UAE requested 48 THAAD missiles last November, along with nine launchers, spare parts and training data, according to a news release by the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency. At the time, the deal was valued at $1.135 billion.
The official price tag for the contract is $3,920,739,507, according to the Pentagon. "Deliveries will begin in fiscal year 2015 and complete in fiscal year 2019," the Defense Department says.
Lockheed Martin says that in 13 field tests conducted last autumn, the system had a perfect success rate of 11 for 11. According to the company's data, it reported net sales of $47.2 billion in 2012.
"We continue to see strong interest from around the globe for the unique capabilities THAAD can provide," Mathew Joyce, vice president and program manager for THAAD at Lockheed Martin, said in a press release announcing the deal.
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