Raytheon gets modification contract on U.S. Army TOW missiles.

Raytheon will provide additional tube-launched, BGM-71 TOW optically-tracked, wireless guided missile systems to the U.S. Army under a three-year, $101.3 Mn contract modification.

TOW 2B fired from a Humvee (Picture source: U.S. Army)

The service branch used fiscal 2017 other procurement funds to cover the full obligated amount at the time of award, the Department of Defense said Friday. Work under the modification will take place in Tucson, Ariz., through Aug. 31, 2022. The company initially received a $300.1M fixed-price-incentive contract in 2017 to supply TOW missiles to the Army, U.S. Marine Corps and three foreign military sales clients.

First produced in 1970, TOW is one of the most widely used anti-tank guided missiles. It can be found in a wide variety of manually carried and vehicle-mounted forms, as well as widespread use on helicopters. Originally designed by Hughes Aircraft in the 1960s, the weapon is currently produced by Raytheon.

In August 2016 footage of the Syrian military inspecting a captured BGM-71E missile system in Bani Zeit district, Aleppo, was leaked online. On 2 September 2016, rebels released a video of a BGM-71 TOW destroying a French-manufactured Syrian Air Force Aérospatiale Gazelle helicopter as it was landing on an airstrip near Khattab in Northern Hama. Reports say that the TOW missile has successfully hit Russian T-90s in Syria, which are equipped with active defences designed to defeat such missiles. However, a Russian report claims the tank shows "very little damage" and was still operable.