The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., Cambridge, Mass., is being awarded a $146,156,130 cost plus incentive fee contract for a Trident II (D5) MK6 Life Extension Guidance System. Work will be performed in Clearwater, Fla., (35 percent); Plymouth, Minn., (27 percent); Bloomington, Minn., (16 percent), Cambridge, Mass., (12 percent); Pittsfield, Mass., (10 percent), and work is expected to be completed Dec. 2011.

This contract was not competitively procured. Strategic systems Programs, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity.

As per its 2008 annual report, in the Trident Mk6 submarine-launched ballistic missile guidance system Life Extension (Mk6LE) program, Charles Stark Draper Laboratory built on 2007′s critical design review to integrate the first unit of the Mk6LE in its operational form-factor and delivered it to test two months ahead of schedule in 2008. To prepare for transitioning to production in 2011, Charles Stark Draper Laboratory has already awarded printed wiring board production contracts for the build of preproduction modules and initiated long-lead parts procurement in coordination with the missile electronics prime contractor.

The annual report states that the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory has completely redesigned the boost guidance system to make it more cost-effective and sustainable. We are replacing the current electromechanical gyro and accelerometers with advanced fiber-optic gyros that have no moving parts, and we have improved the reliability of the accelerometers. We also developed a modular system architecture that will be much easier to upgrade than previous systems.

Draper is a leader in high accuracy Guidance, Navigation, & Control (GN&C) systems. Design agent for the U.S. Navy’s strategic missile guidance systems since the 1950s, Draper is developing advanced sensor technology, including silicon oscillating accelerometers and laser gyros integrated at the chip level.