Boeing to build part of shield for $928 million

Missile defense deal to cover work here through '07

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

From staff and wire reports

Huntsville Times

Boeing Co. has won a $928 million contract to field the ground-based midcourse defense part of a planned U.S. missile defense shield, the Pentagon said Monday.

The Missile Defense Agency said the contract would cover construction and nonconstruction work done in Huntsville from fiscal years 2005 through 2007.

President Bush in 2002 announced a goal to field a rudimentary ground-based missile shield by the end of 2004, but that timetable may slip somewhat, Pentagon chief weapons buyer Michael Wynne said last week.

Chicago-based Boeing is the main contractor for the initial elements of the ground-based system. Northrop Grumman Corp. provides the command and control; Lockheed Martin Corp., a booster rocket. The Pentagon is spending $10 billion a year on the project.

The Pentagon this weekend scrapped the first flight test in nearly two years of the planned missile defense shield because of bad weather.

Also Monday, Boeing raised its quarterly dividend for the second time this year, citing its strong operating performance.

The new 25-cent dividend, up 25 percent, is payable March 4 to shareholders of record Feb. 11. Shares of Boeing, a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, closed Monday at $52.67, up 25 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange.