Article Posted on : - Nov 23, 2010

INDIANAPOLIS (BNS): The US Navy's Naval Air Systems Command has awarded Raytheon a $32.4 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for engineering and manufacturing development of the BRU-69/A Multi-Purpose Bomb Rack system.

The MPBR will replace several bomb racks currently deployed on Navy aircraft, Raytheon said in a release.

It will use pneumatic energy instead of an explosive charge to release the weapon from the rack. Advanced electronics built into the bomb rack will ensure the new system is compatible with current and future precision-guided weapons, or "smart bombs," it said.

The engineering and manufacturing development phase of the program will be completed in 2014, when low rate initial production is expected to begin, with full scale production starting in 2017, it added.

The company will design and built the MPBR system at the Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC (RTSC) facility in Indianapolis.