The Navy has awarded Raytheon [RTN] a $36.7 million deal for Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) guided missile launch systems, which will include sales to Japan, the Pentagon said Friday.
The deal for RAM Mk 49 Mod 3 Guided Missile Launching Systems (GMLS) covers assemble, test and delivery of the weapon systems.
Pentagon officials said 91 percent of the purchases under the contract will be for the U.S. Navy, while the remaining 9 percent will go to Japan.
Deliveries under the deal are expected to be completed by June 2021.
Raytheon’s RAM surface-to-air missile is co-developed under a joint U.S. and German production program, and is designed to provide anti-ship missile defense for multiple ship platforms.
The Navy recently finished a series of guided flight tests for the RAM Block 2A missile, which features a software upgrade that “enhances guidance and the missile’s capability to defeat threats,” according to Raytheon officials (Defense Daily, June 19).
Last October, Raytheon delivered a RAM missile launcher to Mexico, which became the first Latin American country to operate the weapon system (Defense Daily, Oct. 23 2018).