Raytheon gets $881M contract

[Nin-Yaaban]

Tucson plant to do most of work on missile interceptor

By Alan D. Fischer

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

 

Tucson's Raytheon Missile Systems has been awarded a three-year, $881.4 million contract to continue to develop and manufacture an integral part of the nation's ballistic missile defense system.

 

The company, Southern Arizona's largest private employer with more than 10,000 workers, will provide the U.S. Navy with Standard Missile-3 ship-launched missiles for deployment and testing, said Sara Hammond, a Raytheon spokeswoman.

 

The missile carries a warhead into space that is designed to intercept and destroy incoming short- to medium-range ballistic missiles. It is known as a kinetic warhead because it carries no explosives, but destroys the target by smashing into it at high speed - with a closing velocity of up to 10,000 feet per second.

 

The contract calls for Raytheon to produce five of the missiles for deployment on Navy Aegis cruisers. The project will help meet President Bush's December 2002 order calling for deployment of the missile defense system by September 2004, Hammond said.

 

Bush's order calls for up to 20 of the sea-based interceptors to be deployed in 2005.

 

Missiles will also be produced for an ongoing testing program. Of four Standard Missile-3 tests to date, three have intercepted their targets, with the most recent test in June failing, Hammond said. Testing will continue this year, she said.

 

The $881.4 million contract is a boon for the company.

 

"This is a very significant contract for Raytheon as a leader in missile defense," said Louise Francesconi, president of Raytheon's Missile Systems business, in a statement. The missile, as well as the kill vehicle it carries, are developed and made here.

 

The majority of the work will be done in Tucson, but some components will come from suppliers, including Boeing Co. and Alliant Techsystems.

 

The contract will mean no new Tucson jobs, but will keep existing engineering and manufacturing staffers busy. Hammond would not disclose how many Raytheon employees work on the Standard Missile-3 project.

 

The Standard Missile program has been under way for half a century. The Standard Missile-3 has an additional rocket motor to propel the warhead into space.

 

The ship-borne Standard Missile-3 offers flexibility that land-based missile defense systems lack. "The ship can go to where it is needed, near a hot spot, and stand by in times of conflict," Hammond said.

 

Shares of Raytheon fell 11 cents to $31. They have fallen 7.9 percent over the past year.

[Zakariye]

s/alaykum

 

Ninyaban, bro the whole Iraq is on Sale ,any Western country if they go along with the USA can get a piece of History, that tells you all about the Arab region, no one of them is raising any objection about the sale of the land we known in histoyr(Mesopotamia). God help them, i hear in rumor that some of iraqi's Meuseum objects will be displayed in Washington dc, or Prez Bush's Library that is the senior Bush, imagine that, so i have no surprise for the contract that is being given to any country, if French gets along with USA, they can get a ny peacoe of land that it wants in Iraq.I rest my Case.

 

c/salam