Stinger Missile Training

U.S. Marine Corps Pfc. Jonathan Garcia, student, Low Altitude Air Defense (LAAD) Section, Marine Corps Communication Electronics School (MCCES), takes part in LAAD training, Jan. 14, 2019. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Rachel K. Young)

WASHINGTON: In the past two months, the United States has sent more than 1,400 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine, but replacing the aging weapon system will require Raytheon Technologies to redesign electronics in the missile and seeker, Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes said today.

“We’ve been working with the DoD [Department of Defense] for the last couple of weeks,” Hayes said during an earnings call.  “We’re actively trying to resource some of the material. Unfortunately, DoD hasn’t bought a Stinger in about 18 years. Some of components are no longer commercially available, and so we’re going to have to go out and redesign some of the electronics in the missile of the seeker head.

“That’s going to take us a little bit of time,” he said.

While the company hopes to increase Stinger production as much as it can this year, Hayes said it will likely take until the 2023 to 2024 timeframe to surge to the levels needed to recapitalize the stockpile.

RELATED: Stinger, Javelin production can be increased with congressional support: Army official

Currently, the shoulder-mounted Stinger is still in “limited production” for an international customer. That customer is providing much of the obsolete components needed for its own Stingers, and the remaining pool of obsolete parts is limited, a source told Breaking Defense. The source declined to name the partner.

Further, much of Raytheon’s workforce is trained to manufacture the more advanced missiles currently in demand by the US services, like Tomahawk cruise missiles or the AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile. In contrast, little automation is used to build the Stinger, with artisan workers doing much of the fabrication by hand, the source said.

“Transitioning that workforce over to the munitions that are appropriate for the Ukraine fight, that requires some shift of priority and training,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks told Breaking Defense earlier this month. Despite those challenges, she said, Pentagon officials are working with Raytheon to look for ways to ramp up production.

“We’ve had a lot of opportunity between the [Pentagon’s acquisition and sustainment] community… and the policy community to start thinking about how we work with other armaments directors in Europe and elsewhere to understand what they have, to start to understand the supply chain interrelationships, and see if we can speed some of that up,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Army has begun to take steps to develop a Stinger replacement. Earlier this month, it released a request for information seeking a next-generation interceptor for Short Range Air Defense capability, with a plan to award a contract in the second quarter of fiscal 2023, according to Defense News. However, the new weapon may not be ready until FY28.