Northrop Wins Potential $250M Navy Production Contract for Coyote Target Missiles

Northrop Grumman has been awarded a potential $250 million production contract by the U.S. Navy to deliver up to 103 GQM-163A “Coyote” supersonic sea-skimming target (SSST) vehicles, the company reported on Tuesday. Northrop Grumman’s contract has a base value of $57 million that provides for 19 Coyote vehicles.

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

Northrop Grumman’s Coyote is a supersonic target missile for testing naval ship defenses against cruise missile threats. The company has employed 3D printing to develop mockups, tooling and preliminary design modifications. The Coyote features a solid-fuel, air-breathing ducted rocket propulsion system and avionics capable of providing multiple threat scenarios.

Since the Coyote’s inception in 2003, Northrop Grumman has delivered 124 targets to the U.S. Navy and successfully launched them 79 times. The system is designed and built at Northrop Grumman’s launch vehicle production facility in Chandler, Arizona.

The Coyote program is managed by the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland.

About Northrop Grumman

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