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Defense
Industry News - USA |
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US
Missile Defense Agency Awards Raytheon $559 Million for Standard Missile-3
(SM-3) Block IB |
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The Missile Defense Agency awarded Raytheon Company an undefinitized
contract action for a fiscal year 2015 contract valued at $559,206,957
million for Standard Missile-3 Block IBs, which are guided missiles
used by the U.S. Navy to provide regional defense against short- to
intermediate-range ballistic missile threats.
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A SM-3 Launches from USS Lake Erie during a test
(File Picture: US Navy)
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Under
this contract action, which was announced April 30 by the Department
of Defense, Raytheon will deliver an initial quantity of 44 Standard
Missile-3 Block IB all-up rounds and provide the work required to produce
and deliver the third stage rocket motor reliability growth and design
enhancements. The government expressed its intention to purchase additional
missiles up to a total quantity of 52.
"We've consistently demonstrated the SM-3 Block IB's quality, and
now combatant commanders are focused on building up their quantities,"
said Dr. Mitch Stevison, Standard Missile-3 senior program director.
"This contract award reflects the confidence the Missile Defense
Agency has in this missile's regional ballistic missile defense protection."
Final assembly of the SM-3 Block IB takes place at Raytheon's state-of-the-art
SM-6 and SM-3 all-up-round production facility at Redstone Arsenal in
Huntsville, Ala.
Deployed at sea for the first time in 2014, the SM-3 Block IB is on
track for land-based deployment in Romania this year in line with the
second phase of the Phased Adaptive Approach, the U.S.'s plan for missile
defense in Europe. |
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PACIFIC OCEAN (May 15, 2013) A Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block 1B interceptor
missile is launched from the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG
70) during a Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy test in the mid-Pacific.
The SM-3 Block 1B successfully intercepted a target missile that had
been launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands
in Kauai, Hawaii. Lake Erie detected and tracked the target with its
onboard AN/SPY-1 radar. The event was the third consecutive successful
intercept test of the SM-3 Block IB missile. (U.S. Navy photo/Released)
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About
the Standard Missile-3
SM-3s destroy incoming ballistic missile threats in space using nothing
more than sheer impact, which is equivalent to a 10-ton truck traveling
at 600 mph. The next-generation SM-3 Block IB incorporates an enhanced
two-color infrared seeker and the Throttleable Divert and Attitude Control
System, a mechanism that propels the missile toward incoming targets.
» More than 200 SM-3s have been delivered to the U.S. and Japan
to date.
» Raytheon is on track to deliver the next-generation SM-3 Block
IB in 2015.
» SM-3 Block IIA, co-developed with Japan, will have larger rocket
motors and a bigger, more capable kinetic warhead. It's on track for
deployment at sea and ashore in 2018. |
