Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) awarded Orbital ATK [OA] a $171 million modification on Wednesday, exercising an option to procure full-rate Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missiles (AARGM) for the Navy and Australia.
The modification covers full-rate Production Lot 7 AARGMs for the U.S. Navy and Australia. This order is for converting 271 Navy-provided AGM-88B High Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARM) into 253 AGM-88E AARGM all-up-rounds (AURs), eight Captive Air Training Missiles, and 10 AGM-88E AURs for foreign military sales (FMS) customers.
The AARGM is a supersonic, air-launched tactical missile that upgrades the older Raytheon [RTN] AGM-88 HARM system to target land and sea-based radar air defense systems.
This option also procures related supplies and services necessary for the manufacture, sparing and fleet deployments of AARGM. This includes AUR kits and guidance and control section spares.
The work will be split between Northridge (90 percent) and Ridgecrest, Calif. (10 percent), and is expected to be finished by March 2020.
This award is funded via FY ’16, ’17, and ’18 Navy weapons procurement, FMS, and other customer funds. The full value was obligated at award time.
The award is split into 95 percent ($163 million) for the Navy, four percent ($7 million) for Australia, and one percent ($1.5 million) in other customer funds for Italy.
AARGM is a U.S. Navy and Italian Air Force international cooperative acquisition program. The Navy acts as the executive service.
AARGM first reached initial operational capability (IOC) in July 2012 and was approved for full-rate production in September 2012. It is currently deployed on U.S Navy and Marine Corps F/A-18 C/D Hornets, E/F Super Hornets, and the E/A-18G Growler. AARGM is also being integrated into Italy’s Tornado ECR aircraft.