U.S. weapons maker Northrop Grumman received a $1,1 billion contract by the Missile Defense Agency for the missile defense targets, according to a statement issued Monday by U.S. Department of Defense.

Under this new contract, Orbital Sciences Corp. (OSC), a business unit of Northrop Grumman, is being awarded a competitive fixed-price-incentive-fee contract. The total value of this contract is $1,120,178,540.

The contract enables the company to provide the Missile Defense Agency with threat-representative subscale targets with simple and complex re-entry vehicles as well as storage, surveillance, maintenance of delivered hardware and software, and range execution of end items.

The work will be performed in Chandler, Arizona, with a performance period from September 2019 through September 2027.

The missile defense targets will perform missions of simulating a ballistic missile threat. The company’s target system provides MDA with increased flexibility in testing its Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). These tests are a critical element of the U.S. missile shield.

Orbital Sciences Corp. provides a complete suite of threat-representative missiles target products, spanning short-, medium-, intermediate- and long-range ballistic missiles that use both new and surplus rocket motors to provide the best value to MDA and other U.S. government agencies. The company also produces short-range ramjet-propelled targets for the U.S. Navy, including sea-skimming and high-altitude variants, for ship self-defense exercises. During the past 30 years, Orbital has built and launched more than 200 target vehicles from 11 launch sites around the world.