The Missile Defense Agency awarded Raytheon Company $350 million to increase its procurement of Standard Missile-3 Block IB missiles from 8 to 44.
The additional funding increases the FY14 award to $506 million for the procurement of 44 Standard Missile-3 Block IB guided missiles.
The SM-3 is designed to destroy incoming short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missile threats by colliding with them in space, a concept sometimes described as “hitting a bullet with a bullet.”
“The SM-3 Block IB program had a highly successful series of tests in 2013 and completed initial operational testing,” said Dr. Mitch Stevison, Raytheon Missile Systems’ Standard Missile-3 program director. “To meet the combatant commanders’ requests for increased inventories, we continue to deliver final SM-3 Block IAs, while we increase our production rates on the SM-3 Block IBs.”
The SM-3 program includes three variants. The first, SM-3 Block IA, is deployed around the world today, including support of the European Phased Adaptive Approach for missile defense. The second variant, SM-3 Block IB, has completed initial operational testing and is poised for full-rate production. The third variant, the SM-3 Block IIA, is a co-development effort with Japan; the program received an unconditional pass during its critical design review in fourth quarter 2013.
The work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz., and Huntsville, Ala., through September 2016.
[mappress] Press Release, March 7, 2014, 2014; Image: Raytheon