Article Posted on : - Aug 12, 2013

SM-3 Block 1B interceptor is launched from the USS LAKE ERIE (CG 70) during a Missile Defense Agency and US Navy test in the mid-Pacific. A US MDA photo.

TUCSON, ARIZONA (BNS): US Missile Defence Agency has awarded Raytheon Company a $218,530,196 contract to complete the assembly and delivery of 29 Standard Missile-3 Block IB missiles.

Launched off U S Navy ships, SM-3 interceptors destroy incoming short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missile threats by colliding with them in space.

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.

Raytheon is on track to deploy the next-generation guided missile in 2015. The missile will be deployed in both afloat and ashore weapons systems.

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

"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."