A missile testing facility featuring a 200-missile “storage igloo” is slated to be built in Egypt, where the U.S. Army will coordinate construction of the new facility. Additional areas for missile assembly, disassembly, and temporary storage will be built as well, according to a presolicitation notice obtained by The Peacock Report. The Army Corps of Engineers plans to outsource the project either to a U.S.-based contractor or to Egyptian joint ventures affiliated with U.S. companies.
Except for the new site’s name -- the Chaparral Missile Maintenance Facility -- the document does not further elaborate on the project's choice of weaponry. Although Lockheed Martin was the original prime contractor for what is known as the Chaparral Air Defense Missile System, the company’s involvement, if any, in the current project is unknown.
Chaparrals are surface-to-air missiles, which can be launched from fixed sites, land-mobile vehicles, and from shipboard (see video clip). Lockheed Martin continues to offer worldwide logistics support to Chaparral users worldwide:
<blockquote>Meeting the individual customer's need for low-cost logistics support requires tailoring a support package from our wide range of available Chaparral services. Our goal is to provide each user with the right combination of support hardware and services to keep Chaparral operational readiness levels high while minimizing the cost of ownership.</blockquote>
The Army on Monday told industry it intends to release a formal Request for Proposals (RFP) for the new endeavor around April 28. Unlike most U.S. government proposal requests, access to this RFP will be restricted to “qualified firms” deemed capable of building the facility, situated in an Egyptian military controlled zone along the Cairo Suez Desert Road.
The estimated cost of this project is between $1 million and $5 million. The anticipated bid proposal deadline will be around June 15. A pre-proposal site visit is tentatively scheduled for the week of June 5. The document points out that the procurement is on behalf of the Egyptian Government, and does not “obligate” appropriated funds of the U.S. However, it does not factor in how Egypt is one of the largest recipients of annual U.S. aid, getting over a billion in subsidies annually.
Lockheed Martin International S.A. has offices in Egypt as well as other Middle East nations, such Israel and Saudi Arabia. Lockheed Martin Global, Inc., has offices in nations including Turkey and United Arab Emirates. It’s no wonder that the company’s motto is, “At Lockheed Martin, we never forget who we're working for.”