The U.S. Navy recently selected the Naval Strike Missile (NSM), offered by Raytheon and Kongsberg Gruppen, to meet its over-the-horizon requirement for littoral combat ships and future frigates.

Raytheon will manufacture and deliver over-the-horizon weapon systems under a $14.8 million contract for offensive missiles loaded into launching mechanisms and a single fire control suite. The contract includes options, which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value to $847.6 million.

NSM is a long-range precision missile that strikes heavily defended land and sea targets. The missile, which can defeat enemy defenses up to 100 nautical miles away, uses advanced seeker and target identification technology.

"Raytheon and Kongsberg are providing the Navy with a proven, off-the-shelf solution that exceeds requirements for the over-the-horizon mission," says Taylor W. Lawrence, president of Raytheon Missile Systems. "Because it is operational now, NSM saves the U.S. billions of dollars in development costs and creates new high-tech jobs in this country."

Raytheon will manufacture NSM launchers at its factory in Louisville, Ky., and will perform missile final assembly and testing at its Tucson, Ariz., facility.

Raytheon also will perform ordnance alteration efforts for LHA- and LHD-class vessels under a $7.5 million cost-plus-fixed-fee order that allows for the acquisition of materials necessary to support Mk 57 Sea Sparrow and RN-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) systems.

The (ESSM) protects ships from attacking missiles and aircraft and is designed to counter supersonic maneuvering anti-ship missiles. Compared to the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow, ESSM is effectively a new missile with a larger, more powerful rocket motor for increased range, a different aerodynamic layout for improved agility, and the latest missile guidance technology.

LHA- and LHD-class ships are a key element of the Seapower 21 doctrine pillars of Sea Strike and Sea Basing. Those vessels will be the backbone of U.S. amphibious assault capabilities. Work will be performed at the company's location in Hauppauge, N.Y., and Yorktown, Va., and is expected to be complete by July 2019.

For the U.S. Army, Raytheon had designed and live-fire tested a new suite of upgrades to Patriot™ Air and Missile Defense System. The recent tests, viewed by delegations from eight countries, saw Army soldiers conduct the test using Post Deployment Build 8, or PDB-8, to fire two Patriot interceptor missiles against two tactical ballistic missile targets.

"The success of this test is proof that investment by the 14-nation Global Patriot partnership are paying off," says Tom Laliberty, vice president of Integrated Air and Missile Defense at Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems business. "Through sustained investment, we will continually modernize and enhance Global Patriot to keep it ahead of the constantly evolving threat."

PDB-8 is slated for fielding with the U.S. Army and other Patriot partners later this year, offering enhanced capability against a variety of threats, an improved identification friend or foe capability, improved radar search capability, improved target detection and identification, a redesigned fire solution computer that enables Patriot to take advantage of the PAC-3 MSE missile capabilities, and an enhanced weapons control computer that provides up to 50 percent additional processing power for software enhancements to address evolving threats.

The 14 Patriot nations are Germany, Greece, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Spain, South Korea, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, and the U.S.

About the author: Alan M. Petrillo is a Tucson, Ariz., journalist who writes for national and regional magazines and newspapers. He's the author of several books on historical military firearms; two historical mysteries, Full Moon and Asylum Lane; and his latest historical thriller, A Case of Dom Perignon; all available at www.amazon.com.