Article Posted on : - Jun 20, 2012

HERNDON, VIRGINIA (BNS): The US Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a three-year, $108 million contract to develop and implement cryptography upgrades as part of the intercontinental ballistic missile cryptography upgrade II engineering and manufacturing development programme.

This work will occur in Clearfield, Utah, Huntington Beach, California and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The Northrop Grumman-led ICBM prime team is responsible for overall sustainment of the weapon system including development, production, deployment and system modifications.

"This contract completes a major security improvement for the weapon system and provides the Air Force with much improved capabilities," said Tony Spehar, vice president and programme manager of Northrop Grumman's ICBM Systems business unit.