Missile Defense: Events Related to Contractor Selection for the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle

Rep. Howard L. Berman asked us, as a follow-on to our recent review of the early sensor tests for the exoatmospheric kill vehicle (EKV), to look into the circumstances surrounding Boeing Lead Systems Integrator's (LSI) selection of Raytheon's EKV device for further testing. Specifically, he asked us to (1) determine whether there was a misuse of Raytheon's proprietary information by the Boeing EKV team, as had been reported in the media, and whether these events affected the planned competition for an EKV contractor; (2) determine whether a request for proposals (RFP) was ever prepared, whether proposals were submitted, whether formal criteria were used to evaluate the two systems, and whether a formal technical comparison or analysis of the two systems was used to select between them; (3) describe the basis for the selection of Raytheon; (4) identify whether the decision was made by BMDO or Boeing LSI, and, if the decision was made by Boeing LSI, determine the extent to which BMDO was aware of the circumstances surrounding the decision; and (5) identify the amount of money the U.S. government spent to develop the two EKV systems that were to be competed against each other and, if one of the contractors was excluded from the competition, determine whether any effort was made to recoup the money paid to that contractor.