Raytheon will enhance Patriot air defense missile systems for 17 countries.

American Company Raytheon is enhancing the combat-proven Patriot™ Air and Missile Defense System under a $314 million task order for engineering services from the U.S. Army, awarded on January 30. The task order is funded by the 17 nations that rely on Patriot for integrated air and missile defense. This is the third of five annual, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity task order awards with a total contract ceiling of more than $2.3 billion.

U.S. Soldiers from the 5th Battalion 7th Air Defense Artillery Regiment set the Patriot missile defense system in place to get ready for the exercise Astral Knight 19 in Koper, Slovenia May 28, 2019. (Picture source U.S. DoD)

The 17 Patriot user countries are the United States of America, Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Israel, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Taiwan, Greece, Spain, Republic of Korea, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Romania, Sweden, Poland and the Kingdom of Bahrain.

"These modernization efforts ensure Patriot continues to outpace the advancing and proliferating threat and will be ready when needed," said Tom Laliberty, vice president of Integrated Air and Missile Defense at Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems business. "The 17-nation Patriot partnership shares the cost and reaps the benefit of continued investment in the system."

Under the task order, Raytheon is providing comprehensive engineering services including systems, software and hardware development, integration and test services, configuration management and logistics support. Additionally, many of the project results will be incorporated into Patriot Post Deployment Build 8.1, a series of software and hardware capabilities, including new cutting edge methods to search, detect, track, discriminate, engage, and defeat a wide range of evolving threats including tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and military aircraft.

The new version of the Patriot will integrate the Warfighter Machine Interface (WMI) into Patriot to provide a total view of that battlespace, with 3-D visuals, easy-to-read status pages and search functions.

As part of the contract, Raytheon will also enhance the resilience of Patriot against evolving cyber threats and developing solutions that enhance readiness and reduce life cycle costs by making the system more reliable.

Replacing obsolete parts of Patriot's communications system, enabling Patriot to reliably operate until the U.S. Army's new Integrated Air and Missile Defense Command and control system comes on-line.

Raytheon's Global Patriot Solutions is one of the most advanced, tactical air and missile defense systems in the world, providing protection against a full range of advanced aerial threats, including aircraft, tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.