Boeing, Hughes to Co-Develop New Guided Missile System

WASHINGTON —  The Army named Boeing Co. and General Motors Corp. on Monday to co-develop a new guided missile to destroy enemy tanks and helicopters in a program that could mean $2 billion in total contracts for the firms.

Boeing and the Hughes Aircraft Co. division of General Motors will work jointly on the program to fully develop the new “FOG-M” fiber-optic guided missile. Then they will compete against one another for production.

Boeing will be the prime contractor and Hughes Aircraft a subcontractor under their teaming arrangement. Boeing will be responsible for systems integration of the missile and developing the missile gunner’s station. Hughes Aircraft’s missile systems group will develop the missile itself.

Hughes Aircraft will conduct its portion of the missile development at both its Canoga Park and Tucson missile facilities. The company said that it would have no estimates of the number of jobs that will be created by the program until it could determine the value of the contract. The development team won out over a competing team of Raython Co. and Martin Marietta Corp., according to defense officials.

The “FOG-M” will be part of the Army’s planned new forward area air defense (FAAD) system, a five-part program to improve battlefield cover for ground divisions, especially in Western Europe.

The Army said it plans to award the first contract for the missile, which would be guided by a very thin fiber-optic wire stretching from the operator to the missile, within a month.

No amount was given for the initial award, but the Army said the 43-month contract will require the Boeing-Hughes team to develop eight firing units and 40 missiles, with deliveries scheduled in early 1991.

Published reports have said the Pentagon wants more than 2,000 ground launchers and 100,000 missiles at a cost of up to $3 billion. The Army said on Monday that the program could have an eventual value in excess of $2 billion.

The FAAD program was launched after the Army suffered a major blow in 1985 with the Defense Department’s cancellation of the troubled $4.8-billion Sgt. York anti-aircraft gun program.

Under the Army’s plan to accelerate development of the dual-purpose “FOG-M,” the missile would have a range greater than the 6.2 miles foreseen for what was initially to be only an anti-helicopter version of the missile. The new range is classified.