The Missile Defense Agency has awarded a contract to Raytheon Missiles and Defense, a Raytheon Technologies business, to produce and deliver operational Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA Interceptors. With an estimated value of $867M, this contract award delivers the defensive weapon capability for the U.S. Navy to destroy short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

Moreover, this SM-3 Block IIA procurement provides a capability to intercept regional ballistic missile threats when launched and guided by the Aegis Weapon System, and brings significant performance improvement over previous generations of the SM-3 and Aegis Weapons System. This contract captures the program's incremental production acquisition objective with the plan to execute the full production for FY 2023 and beyond.

"This contract award is a significant milestone for the Aegis Weapons System because the production and deployment of the SM3 BLK IIA will provide the Warfighter with the increased ballistic missile defense capability they need to protect themselves, US forces and allies," said MDA Director, Vice Admiral Jon Hill.

The Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) is an exo-atmospheric missile defense interceptor used for theater ballistic missile defense. Part of the Aegis Weapon System, it uses a hit-to-kill kinetic kill vehicle to intercept ballistic missiles during the midcourse of their flight path.

The Aegis Ballistic Missile Weapons System is the naval component of the U.S. Missile Defense System. The MDA and the U.S. Navy cooperatively manage the Aegis BMD system. Aegis BMD ships (and Aegis Ashore) receive track data via the C2BMC system, build the fire control solutions, then launch and guide the SM-3 family of missiles to destroy incoming threats.

MDA's mission is to develop and deploy a layered Missile Defense System to defend the U.S., its deployed forces, allies, and friends from missile attacks of all ranges in all phases of flight.

Related Links
Missile Defense Agency
Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com
All about missiles at SpaceWar.com

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