Northrop Grumman wins potential $250M Navy contract

Falls Church defense contractor to produce target missiles

Published December 22, 2020 by Sydney Lake

Falls Church-based Fortune 500 aerospace and defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. announced Tuesday it has been awarded a potential $250 million contract to produce additional target vehicles for the U.S. Navy.

Under the contract, Northrop Grumman will produce 19 GQM-163A Coyote supersonic sea-skimming target (SSST) missiles, which are used to test naval ships’ defenses. Northrop Grumman designed, developed and first flew the Coyote in 2003 and has since delivered 124 targets and successfully launched 79 times.

“The Coyote is the only supersonic sea skimming target in production in the U.S.,” Rich Straka, Northrop Grumman vice president of launch vehicles, said in a statement. “This is our 14th full-rate production contract of reliable and proven threat representative targets.”

The Coyote is designed and built at Northrop Grumman’s launch vehicle production facility in Chandler, Arizona.

Northrop Grumman employs more than 90,000 people and reported $33.8 billion in 2019 revenue.

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