DoD Awards $196M to Draper

Engineers at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., are upgrading the Mk-6 guidance system of the Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missile under terms of a $195.8-million US Navy contract.

Draper Lab experts will repair and recertify Mk 6 guidance systems, including pendulous integrating gyroscopic accelerometers, inertial measurement units, electronic assemblies, inertial measurement unit electronics, as well as provide repair parts and test equipment maintenance under the contract, awarded Nov. 22 from the US Strategic Systems Program in Arlington, Va. The contract, N00030-07-C-0001, contains options which, if exercised, would bring its total value to $201,885,800, the DoD said.

Most of the work will be performed in Massachusetts: Cambridge (64 percent). Pittsfield (23 percent) and Andover (5 percent). Other sites include El Segundo, Calif. (3 percent); Clearwater, Fla. (3 percent); and Woodland Hills, Calif. (2 percent). The project is expected to be completed by September 2007. Contract funds in the amount of $76,560,500 will expire at the end of current fiscal year.

The lab dates to the 1930s, when Charles Stark Draper created a teaching laboratory at MIT to develop the instrumentation needed to make precise measurements of angular and linear motion. The alb was renamed for its founder in 1970 and remained a part of MIT until 1973, when it became an independent, not-for-profit research and development corporation. A primary focus of Draper’s efforts throughout its history has been the development and early application of advanced guidance, navigation and control technologies for DoD and NASA.

For more information, visit: www.draper.com