Lockheed and Northrop Beat Out Boeing to Land Multibillion Dollar Pentagon Contract

Teams led by Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) have won billions in new funding to work on a new missile defense interceptor program designed to protect the U.S. homeland from intercontinental ballistic threats.

The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has awarded an initial $1.6 billion to the two contractors, with more funding to come, selecting them over Boeing (NYSE: BA) to develop and demonstrate their concepts. The government wants the eventual Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) winner to design an all-new system, including booster and payload, that is able to launch from current infrastructure based in Alaska and California.

Boeing's exclusion is a disappointment, but in many ways the company lost this battle a long time ago. The company designed the current system now set to be replaced, and efforts by the Pentagon to work with Boeing to modernize that system were abandoned in 2019. That decision was a $5 billion blow to Boeing, and set the stage for this new competition.

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Source Fool.com