Boeing to Study ICBM Communications Security Enhancements

OGDEN, Utah.- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] has received a $3.7 million contract from Northrop Grumman Corp. to evaluate enhancements to communications security and replacements for data-storage media for the U.S. Air Force’s Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) system. This contract is the second phase of risk-reduction work being done in advance of a major ICBM modification program planned for 2010.

Under this phase of the Master Code Cartridge Conversion program, Boeing will continue to develop hardware and software for a proof-of-concept demonstration and to draft the program’s requirements documentation. Boeing will complete work on this contract by September 2009.

“This contract will advance the hardware and software concepts that will be critical to keeping the Minuteman weapon system secure and sustainable,” said Kelly Johnson, Boeing ICBM Prime Ground and Weapons Systems program manager. “Data-transport technologies and communication security will be updated, demonstrated and deployed in the next phases of this important modification program.”

Boeing has played a key role in ICBM development design, production and maintenance since the Minuteman I was conceptualized in 1958. In addition to ground- and weapon-system sustainment, Boeing performs ICBM repair activities at its Guidance Repair Center in Heath, Ohio, and is a member of the ICBM prime contractor team.

Boeing’s integrated ICBM product teams include more than 1,000 Boeing employees and span several locations, including Heath; Ogden; Anaheim, Calif.; and El Paso, Texas.