Raytheon awarded $578 million contract for Standard Missile-2 production

News, US December 25, 2021 , by IRIA No Comments

U.S. defense firm Raytheon Technologies’ business segment Raytheon Missiles & Defense was awarded a $578 million contract to produce 54 SM-2 Block IIIAZ all up round upgrades for the U.S. Navy and 215 Standard Missile-2 all up rounds for seven partner nations.

The contract includes the production of SM-2™ Block IIIA, IIIAZ, and IIIB variants for the United States, Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Chile, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, Raytheon official release posted on December 22.

Raytheon Missiles & Defense vice president of Naval Power, Kim Ernzen said “SM-2 continues to be a premier ship air-defense weapon for many partner navies worldwide. Here at home, the SM-2 will protect U.S. Navy ships and crews through 2035 and beyond.”

SM-2 defends navies against anti-ship missiles and aircraft out to 90 nautical miles and an altitude of 65,000 feet. SM-2 has an extensive flight test history with more than 2,700 successful live firings.

According to Raytheon news release, the SM-2 Block IIIA and IIIB variants include radar seeker technologies in continuous wave and interrupted continuous wave guidance modes, tail controls, and solid rocket motor propulsion to engage high-speed maneuvering threats and updated radar targeting and directional warheads. Block IIIB also includes autonomous infrared acquisition. The project is expected to be complete by December 2026.

^{Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) fires a Standard Missile (SM) 2 as part of Valiant Shield 2014. (Image Credit: U.S. Navy Mass Communication Specialist Seaman David Flewellyn)}

U.S. Department of Defense official statement read: “Foreign Military Sales (FMS) (Korea) funds in the amount of $231,687,410 (40%); FMS (Denmark) funds in the amount of $97,952,805 (17%); FMS (Taiwan) funds in the amount of $57,583,218 (10%); Memorandum Of Understanding (Netherlands) funds in the amount of $52,977,595 (9%); FMS (Spain) funds in the amount of $50,199,713 (9%); fiscal 2021 weapons procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $36,789,237 (6%); FMS (Chile) funds in the amount of $33,078,183 (5%); FMS (Japan) funds in the amount of $10,808,242 (2%); FMS (Germany) funds in the amount of $4,968,817 (1%); and FMS (Australia) funds in the amount of $2,268,957 (1%).”

In addition, Raytheon was also awarded an $8.6 million modification to a firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee order against a previously issued basic ordering agreement, U.S. Department of Defense statement read. “This modification exercises an option to procure nine Night Vision System AN/AAQ-44 Forward Looking Infrared kits for Lot 6 CH-53K production aircraft,” the statement added.