The Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin a $4.7 million contract to conduct demonstration and validation (DemVal) studies on the Mk21 MIRV shroud for use on the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, according to a Defense Department notice posted yesterday. The service did not immediately respond yesterday to a Weapons Complex Morning Briefing request for comment. The Fiscal Year 2015 “cromnibus” appropriations bill did not allocate any funding specifically for the GBSD, the Minuteman 3 follow-on, though it did disperse $139.1 million for development of Minuteman 3 operational systems and $30.9 million for development of advanced Minuteman 3 components. Air Force officials have said multiple times that they plan to leverage current Minuteman 3 technologies into GBSD, which will be a new start program in FY 2016. The House-passed National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2016 would authorize $75 million for research and development on the weapon system.
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