Lockheed gets $53M for Army's new missile

The Army awarded an initial $53 million contract Wednesday to Lockheed Martin Corp. to develop the Joint Common Missile - the next generation replacement for the Army's current Hellfire anti-tank missile along with other missiles.

The Army plans to buy more than 50,000 missiles, which are meant to be interchangeable on multiple missile-launching weapons. The total contract could be worth more than $5 billion over the next 15 years.

The award to Lockheed is a small blow to Huntsville, because aerospace companies Northrop-Grumman, Raytheon and Boeing Co. had each promised to do the bulk of the work here and add more than 500 jobs locally if the award had gone to one of them.

Lockheed Martin, which also has a large local presence, had announced plans this year to build the Joint Common Missile at its Troy plant if awarded the contract.

"We look forward to the opportunity to provide our nation's aviators with this outstanding new weapon system," Richard Edwards, Lockheed Martin's director of tactical missiles, said in a news release.

The system is a multi-mode weapon, featuring precision targeting and lock-on before and after launch. It also will guide itself to the target, known as fire-and-forget.

The project is managed at Redstone Arsenal in the Common Missile Project Office.

The contract was awarded by the Army's Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, and the $53 million award covers four years, said Dan O'Boyle, AMCOM spokesman.