Dynetics won a prototype contract to produce the Army’s Indirect Fire Protection Capability. (Dynetics)

WASHINGTON: Dynetics’ Enduring Shield system officially beat out a variant of Israeli’s famous Iron Dome capability for a new US Army contract, the first such win for the Leidos subsidiary’s new system.

The $237 million contract to develop a cruise missile interceptor for the Army’s Indirect Fires Protection Capability was announced late on Sept. 24.

Dynetics’ will deliver 16 launcher prototypes, 60 fieldable interceptor prototypes and all-up-round magazines under the two-and-a-half year contract. The company beat out a Rafael and Raytheon partnership that used an upgraded version of Iron Dome, the Israeli system that defends against incoming rockets. The two systems participated in a shoot out at the White Sands test range earlier this summer.

The first battery of prototype launchers — which includes 12 launchers — will be available by the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023, according to Maj. Gen. Robert Rasch, the leader of Program Executive Office Missiles and Space.

“We’re getting 16 total because some of those will become test asset [and] some of them through our testing will potentially be destroyed as we’re conducting survivability activities,” Rasch said.

At the shoot off, both teams were given three shots, a contest which had followed a year of computer simulation and hardware tests in Army labs. Part of the grading was how interoperable systems were with the Army’s Integrated Air Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS).

“Dynetics looks forward to delivering this next-generation solution to meet the Army’s needs now and in the future,” said Ronnie Chronister, senior vice president of weapons technology and manufacturing at Dynetics. “We’re ready to tackle this urgent schedule, supporting the safety of our soldiers with this integrated air and missile defense capability.”

Rasch told reporters on Friday evening that the that shoot-off was meant to provide data to vendors as they formulated final proposals and stressed that it wasn’t a source selection event.

“It wasn’t about hits or misses,” Rasch said. “It was about demonstrating that kill chain from a sensor — in this case the Sentinel radar — providing data, fire control quality data, to the Integrated Air Missile Defense Battle Command System, which then creates a fire control engagement for the launcher and the interceptor to engage on.”

“That’s the primary piece of data that we collected. That’s what we provided back to the industry partners so that they could then write their final proposals.”

The Dynetics team used a ground-launched AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile, while the Rafael-Raytheon team used a modified version of Iron Dome’s interceptor, known as SkyHunter.

IFPC will initially focus on defeating cruise missiles and large drones, which Rasch told reporters earlier this year was the Army’s biggest “gap” in a future conflict with China or Russia. The future production contract will cover around 400 launchers.