Article Posted on : - Sep 06, 2012

SM-3. A Raytheon photo.

TUCSON, ARIZONA (BNS): US Missile Defence Agency has awarded Raytheon a $230 million contract for 14 Standard Missile-3 Block IA missiles and five SM-3 Block IB missiles.

Designed to destroy short- to intermediate-range ballistic missile threats in space, Raytheon's SM-3 Block IB includes an enhanced two-colour infrared seeker for better target discrimination.

According to the Company, this improved SM-3, recently successful in two back-to-back flight tests in May and June, also has a Throttleable Divert and Attitude Control System that allows the kinetic warhead to propel itself toward incoming threats using short bursts of precision propulsion.

Raytheon has delivered more than 135 SM-3 missiles to the US and Japanese navies.