Washington Business Journal
By Carten Cordell – Staff Reporter
The U.S. Air Force, Navy and 22 foreign allies tapped Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN) Friday with a $768 million contract for its Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM).
The noncompetitive contract will split an order of the medium-range missiles between the Air Force and Navy, which will cover more than $401 million of the award, and allies Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and United Kingdom, which will cover the rest.
The versatile missile has been in service since the 1990s, with up to 37 countries utilizing it on a variety of aircraft. The Department of Defense’s award notice doesn’t specify how many missiles the contract will procure, but it does call for missile production, captive air training missiles, guidance sections, AMRAAM telemetry system, spares and other production engineering support hardware.
The order comes after reports this summer that the Air Force is developing a longer range missile dubbed the Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM) that officials hope to field by 2022.
But that doesn’t mean the AMRAAM will leave the field any time soon. The contract finalized Friday is expected to run through Feb. 28, 2023.
