Northrop gets $86M for security systems at nuclear missile bases

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman an $86.1 million task order to maintain the security cameras and sensors that watch over America’s nuclear missile silos.

The task order covers program management, maintenance, sustaining engineering and support services for the Remote Visual Assessment program, a ground-based camera and sensor network that monitors Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silos. The award falls under a broader ground subsystem support contract Northrop Grumman has held since 2021. The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity.

Work under this task order will take place at Hill Air Force Base, along with F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, and Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, the three installations that oversee the Air Force’s dispersed fields of Minuteman III silos across the northern United States. The contract is expected to run through September 2031.

The Remote Visual Assessment system lets Air Force personnel confirm what’s happening at a missile silo without physically traveling to the site, an important capability given how far apart individual silos sit across the missile fields. When a security sensor detects unusual activity at a silo, cameras tied into the RVA system let a missile alert facility crew visually verify the alert before dispatching a security response team, cutting down on unnecessary trips to remote locations.

The award was made as a sole-source acquisition, meaning the Air Force did not open the work to competitive bidding. Of the task order’s total value, $15.2 million in fiscal 2026 procurement funds was obligated at the time of award, with the remainder expected to be funded as the work progresses.