Article Posted on : - Oct 03, 2013

In addition to fleet defence, Raytheon's Standard Missile-6 has been selected to fulfill the US Navy's sea-based terminal role. A Raytheon photo

TUCSON, ARIZONA (BNS): The US Navy has awarded Raytheon a contract worth $243 million to deliver Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) Block I variant.

Under the deal, Raytheon will supply a total of 89 SM-6 Block I variants to the Navy along with spares, containers and related services, the company announced on Sept 30.

The SM-6 is the newest addition to Raytheon's Standard Missile (SM) family of missiles.

It leverages the legacy Standard Missile airframe and propulsion elements while incorporating the advanced signal processing and guidance control capabilities of Raytheon's Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM).

The SM-6 uses both active and semiactive guidance modes and advanced fuzing techniques. The advanced missile is designed to defend naval vessels against fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and land-attack anti-ship cruise missiles.

The new missile has also been selected to fulfill the US Navy's Sea-Based Terminal (SBT) role and will provide defence against ballistic missiles in their terminal phase of flight, succeeding the SM-2 Blk IV missile. The initial version of the SBT, Increment 1, is to enter service around 2015, with a subsequent version, called Increment 2, to enter service around 2018, according to Raytheon.

The company began delivering the SM-6 missiles to the US Navy in April 2011.