Job Could Be Worth As Much as $6 Billion
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 3, 2004; Page E01
The Army awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. a contract yesterday that could be worth as much as $6 billion to develop spy planes that can detect enemy signals and track troop movements.
The unarmed plane, known as the Aerial Common Sensor, will fly 37,000 feet over the battlefield at 400 mph searching for enemy radio and radar signals. The new aircraft will replace two Army planes, Guardrail Common Sensor and Airborne Reconnaissance Low, and the Navy's EP-3E.
The initial contract to design and develop the plane is worth about $879 million, but the program is expected to generate billions more once production begins. The Army and Navy are expected to order 38 and 19 of the planes, respectively, Army spokesman Timothy Rider said. It is unclear when the first plane will enter operation.
The Army has outgrown the existing airplanes, said John E. Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a research organization. "This would provide some of the earliest warnings of a surprise attack," Pike said. "The bigger airplanes get more notice, but these are really the backbone of the Army's signal intelligence."
The program signifies a "whole generation leap forward," said Stanton D. Sloane, Lockheed's executive vice president for integrated systems and solutions. "It's going to do great things."
Asked which armies were going to be launching surprise attacks in the near future, given that Iraq's army folded like a cheap tent in a high wind, the Warsaw Pact is now just a category on the History Channel, and Paul Wolfowitz has been forbidden to invade any new countries until he's finished cleaning up Iraq and mowed the lawn, Sloane warned that the world is still a dangerous place. "First off, there's North Korea," the Lockheed VP said. "And then there's … you know, that country with the big army… Ummm… did I mention North Korea?" Assured that he did, he added "And don't forget North Korea."
Asked if 57 airplanes and $6 Billion dollars wasn't a bit much to keep track of the North Korean Army, considering that the entire country was recently put on EBay with a reserve price of one billion, Pike assured this reporter that "You don't want the Mexicans to be able to sneak up on you."
Some observers think that the contract is less misguided than simply nostalgic. "Let's face it," said one retired general. "The '80s were a cool decade. We had to worry about the Soviets invading Germany, the possibility of a land war in the Middle East, heck we even got to plan for an invasion of Nicaragua. Now all we do is ride around Iraq and get ambushed. Well, the heck with that. We're going retro and getting ready for WWIII whether the world wants to go along with us or not."
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