Raytheon's new SM-3 Block IB missile on track for operational deployment in 2015

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Defense Industry News - USA
 
 
 
Raytheon's new SM-3 Block IB on track for operational deployment in 2015
 
Raytheon Company was awarded a $218,530,196 contract by the Missile Defense Agency to complete the assembly and delivery of 29 Standard Missile-3 Block IB missiles. Launched off U.S. Navy ships, SM-3 interceptors protect the U.S. and its allies by destroying incoming short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missile threats by colliding with them in space.
     
Raytheon Company was awarded a $218,530,196 contract by the Missile Defense Agency to complete the assembly and delivery of 29 Standard Missile-3 Block IB missiles. Launched off U.S. Navy ships, SM-3 interceptors protect the U.S. and its allies by destroying incoming short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missile threats by colliding with them in space.
A SM-3 Launches from USS Lake Erie during a test
(File Picture: US Navy)
     
"The three back-to-back successful SM-3 Block IB flight tests have demonstrated the missile's advanced capabilities and reliability against various threats in a variety of mission scenarios," said Dr. Taylor Lawrence, Raytheon Missile Systems president. "Combatant commanders around the world are eager to build up their inventories in support of Phase 2 of the Phased Adaptive Approach starting in 2015."

Final assembly will take place in Raytheon's new, state-of-the-art Redstone Missile Integration Facility in Huntsville, Ala. Guidance sections and guidance units will be built at the Raytheon Missile Systems Space Factory in Tucson, Ariz.

"The Redstone Missile Integration Facility will prove critical as we ramp up our manufacturing capacity on the path to SM-3 Block IB full-rate production," said Dr. Mitch Stevison, Raytheon Missile Systems' SM-3 program director.
     
Raytheon Company was awarded a $218,530,196 contract by the Missile Defense Agency to complete the assembly and delivery of 29 Standard Missile-3 Block IB missiles. Launched off U.S. Navy ships, SM-3 interceptors protect the U.S. and its allies by destroying incoming short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missile threats by colliding with them in space.
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)
     
About the Standard Missile-3
The SM-3 does not contain an explosive warhead, but instead destroys the threats using sheer impact, equivalent to a 10-ton truck traveling at 600 mph.

» More than 155 SM-3s have been delivered ahead of schedule and under cost.
» Raytheon is on track to deliver the next-generation SM-3 Block IB in 2015.
» SM-3 Block IB will be deployed in both sea-based and land-based modes.