Tue, Jun 15, 2004
McDonnell-Douglas Subsidiary to Develop Navy's Multi-Mission
Maritime Aircraft
The Department of Defense announced Monday that McDonnell
Douglas, a Boeing subsidiary, has been awarded a $3,889,979,744
cost-plus-award-fee contract to develop the US Navy’s
Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA).
This milestone will launch the MMA program into the system
development and demonstration (SDD) phase of the acquisition
program. During the SDD phase, the program will focus on developing
a system that will significantly transform how the Navy’s
maritime patrol and reconnaissance force will man, train, operate
and deploy. Ultimately, the MMA will replace the US Navy's aging
fleet of P-3C Orion aircraft, thereby securing the Navy’s
future in long-range maritime patrol.
"Today’s MMA decision represents an important milestone
for the warfighter and the acquisition team," said John Young,
assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and
acquisition. "Our P-3 fleet has made major contributions to
operations in Afghanistan and Iraq while also performing their core
maritime mission. It is becoming urgent to replace the P-3 with a
new airframe and the enhanced capability offered by MMA. Both
industry teams produced high quality proposals, and the acquisition
team has worked with industry to make a good decision, on
schedule."
"MMA offers a modern, highly reliable airframe which will be
equipped with improved maritime surveillance and attack capability,
allowing a smaller force to provide world-wide responsiveness while
potentially on a smaller support infrastructure," said Young.
MMA will be a key component in the Navy’s Sea Power 21 Sea
Shield concept by providing persistent anti-submarine and
anti-surface warfare capabilities, supporting Sea Power 21’s
Sea Strike doctrine through provisions of intelligence,
surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. The platform will
also play a key role in the Navy’s FORCEnet architecture via
development of the common undersea picture. These operational
capabilities will be key factors in providing a sustained forward
presence, sea domination, and distributed and networked
intelligence.
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