Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, a naval technical agent, was awarded a $453.9 million contract modification to fund engineering support on the Trident D5 missile guidance subsystem, the Pentagon announced last week.
The cost-plus-fixed-fee modification applies to a previously announced and awarded Navy contract to continue engineering and support services for the submarine-launched ballistic missile system. Work is expected to be complete by Sept. 30, 2028. The Pentagon notice on Dec. 10 said all funds will be obligated at the time of the award, and none will expire at the end of the fiscal year.
The work will be performed mainly in Cambridge, Mass., but then some will take place in Pittsfield, Mass. and El Segundo, Calif.
The Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missile is a three-stage missile deployed on U.S. Ohio-class and U.K. Vanguard-class submarines and will be carried aboard U.S. Columbia-class and U.K. Dreadnought-class submarines in the future. According to Lockheed Martin, the aim of the Trident missile is to ensure the Columbia-class submarine’s strategic weapons system is credible until 2084.
During a deployment, the missile would be tipped with either legacy W88 warheads – a Trident can carry up to eight — or the W76 warhead designed by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The newest versions of the warhead, the W76-2, are manufactured at the Pantex Plant in Texas.