Article Posted on : - May 17, 2012

TUCSON (BNS): The US Navy has awarded Raytheon a contract to produce the Standard Missile-6 advanced surface-to-air missile systems.

The contract, worth $313.8 million, makes provision for low-rate initial production of Standard Missile-6 all-up rounds, Raytheon said.

The contract work is expected to be completed by March 2015, it said.

The SM-6, also called Extended Range Active Missile, has been designed to act as a long-range anti-air warfare missile system for the US Navy.

The weapon can be used against fixed and rotary wing aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and land attack anti-ship cruise missiles in flight, both over sea and land.

Raytheon was contracted by the US Navy in 2004 to develop the SM-6 system. It delivered the first production lot of the weapon system to the Navy in April 2011.