Raytheon Co. has been awarded a contract from the US Navy for engineering and manufacturing to continue development of the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) leading to sea-based missile defense deployment. The value of this award is for $881.4 M during the next three years.
The program will leverage the Standard missile's legacy of success and Raytheon's state-of-the-art kill vehicle manufacturing facility in Tucson in which the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle is built and integrated. SM-3 features a third stage rocket motor, GPS guidance and a kinetic warhead to intercept and destroy short- and medium-range ballistic missiles in space. SM-3 is a component of the Missile Defense Agency's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD). The Aegis BMD cruiser, USS Lake Erie, with SM-3 achieved three consecutive "hit-to-kill" intercepts of ballistic missile targets in 2002.
Raytheon is leading the SM-3 integrated team effort, supported by the Boeing Co. and Alliant Techsystems, which provide major subsystems. In December 2002, President Bush announced the administration's intention to deploy missile defense capabilities in 2004-2005. Implementation of the President's order calls for up to 20 sea-based interceptors employed on existing Aegis ships in 2005. In addition to funding engineering activity, this contract will support the manufacture and testing of the initial five deployment missiles and the continued cooperative research and development work with Japan. This contract will also include additional quantities for later deployment. Work on the missiles will be done primarily at Raytheon's Missile Systems facilities in Tucson, AZ and Camden, AR.