Raytheon Technologies has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Navy for phase one of the Hypersonic Air-Launched Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare weapon program (HALO). HALO is a carrier-based offensive anti-ship strike weapon that supports the U.S. Navy’s long range fires strategy.

"The U.S. Navy requires a highly capable and survivable weapon that's adaptable for future relevance," said Colin Whelan, president of Advanced Technology at Raytheon Missiles & Defense. "Raytheon's open system architecture and digital engineering approaches will ensure we deliver this critical capability to the warfighter when they need it."

During this phase of the program, Raytheon's Advanced Technology team will focus on maturing the technology required to reach a preliminary design review of an all up round HALO weapon system. The next phase of the program will focus on demonstrating a propulsion system.

HALO will be a higher speed, longer-range, air-launched weapon system providing superior anti-surface warfare capabilities to the U.S. Navy. It will address advanced threats from distances that allows the fleet to operate in, and control, a contested battle space.