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Naval
Defense Industry News - USA, Thailand |
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Royal
Thai Navy to fit Raytheon's Evolved SeaSparrow Missile on its Naresuan
class frigates |
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The
Royal Thai Navy has signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance with the
U.S. government to purchase nine Evolved SeaSparrow Missiles for its
two Naresuan frigates currently undergoing overhauls and upgrades. This
LOA increases the total ESSM user community to 13 nations. |
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HTMS Naresuan (FFG 421)
(Picture: Kazec) |
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The Royal
Thai ESSMs will be fired from an MK 41 eight-cell vertical launch system
using an MK 25 Quad Pack canister. This capability will allow for up
to 32 ESSMs on each ship.
"This agreement brings the enhanced kinematics of the ESSM to the
Royal Thai Navy's inventory and provides unsurpassed defense against
a new generation of threats," said Rick Nelson, vice president
of Raytheon Missile Systems' Naval and Area Mission Defense product
line. "The addition of the ESSM will provide the Royal Thai Navy
an unmatched ship self-defense capability, as well as allowing the fleet
to take advantage of future spiral evolutions of the missile." |
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Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM) launching from a VLS
(Picture: Raytheon) |
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About ESSM
With 18 industrial partners representing 10 nations, ESSM is the world's
premier international cooperative missile production program. ESSM
is a key component of Raytheon's portfolio of products that provides
a global layered defense capability to meet the needs of diverse platforms,
combat system design and theaters of operation. Recently a ground-launched
version of ESSM was introduced to apply the same solutions against
late-detect and highly capable threats on land as found in the sea-based
missile. Testing is under way on this ground-launched variant.
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