Under the terms of the agreements, Raytheon will increase annual production of the Tomahawk cruise missile, AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, Standard Missile-6, Standard Missile-3 IIA and Standard Missile-3 IB.
The sale would cover up to 400 copies of the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile produced by defense giant RTX, which the Defense Security Cooperation Agency says will “provid[e] increased air-to-air capability for the German F-35 program” and other NATO requirements.
As threats evolve, the winning model ties digital engineering to manufacturing capacity and a reindustrialized supply chain.
The awards follow a desire by officials to boost the Pentagon’s munitions stockpile.
The services’ unfunded requests, obtained by Breaking Defense, reflect sharp increases compared to last year.
How RTX is helping the Raptor stay ready to dominate the skies.
The possible sale of the RTX-made AMRAAMs includes up to 1,200 missiles.
Balancing security and access to data are critical to providing users with trustworthy, reliable data for real-time decisions.
Drones, high-speed cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles attacking together from 360° creates complexity only certain radars can handle.
The sale was approved by the Biden administration against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in Gaza, and moved only after two key Democrats removed objections.
Shay Assad, a former Pentagon director of defense pricing, is back assisting the Air Force on three programs - and could be tagged for more in the future.
“We have never seen more demand for these weapons as we have in the last year-plus,” said Paul Ferraro, Raytheon president of Air & Space Defense Systems.
On today’s battlefield, mobility isn’t optional - it’s mission-critical.
A Raytheon spokesperson said an upgraded domestic variant of the missile would be fielded “by the end of the year,” with an international variant expected to pass a critical milestone in “late 2023 or early 2024.”
Raytheon integrated air defense systems — advanced radars, command and control systems and interceptors — form a multi-layered shield for air base defense.
Air Force’s Stand-in Attack Weapon (SiAW) program has funded prototyping work with three short-term contracts first issued last year to Lockheed Martin, L3Harris and Northrop Grumman.
A new strategy for operations explaining how air dominance isn’t always about sustained control as much as it is about temporary air-corridor control.