Harpoon Competitors Whittled to Two
Navy has narrowed its competition for the combination of air- and surface launched Harpoon anti-shipping missile to two of the five companies which submitted proposals for development of the weapon earlier this year. The two companies, McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics Electro-Dynamic Div., must submit additional technical and financial data to the Navy during the next few days. Navy plans to choose a winner next month. McDonnell Douglas is assisted in its proposal effort by Texas Instruments, which would provide the terminal guidance seeker for Harpoon, and Sperry Rand's Systems Management Div., which would be responsible for shipboardintegration of the missile.
The General Dynamics team consists of Boeing, with responsibility for aircraft integration and missile propulsion, and Honeywell, which would handle integration of the weapon system on naval ships.
Harpoon is visualized as the Navy’s answer to the threat of Russian-built cruise missile firing ships and submarines. One version of the all weather weapon will be carried by aircraft; a second variant with an extra propulsion stage will be surface—launched. The weapon will be fired into the vicinity of a target, with approximate target coordinates secured by aircraft or spotting ships or at very short ranges by the firing ship itself. An active terminal seeker will supply guidance during final flight phase.
Navy asked the two successful contractors to supply answers to technical questions by May 15. Discussions were held between the Navy and the contractors Iast week. Further discussions are planned for May 20. The three unsuccessful Harpoon contenders were Raytheon-Ling-Temco-Vought, Hughes Aircraft-Northrop-Motorola and North American Rockwell-AILRCA Corp.
Competitive Harpoon engine developments are under way at Garrett AiResearch and Teledyne CAE.
Source: AWST 17 May 1971