The U.S. Air Force awarded Raytheon a $24 million contract for Paveway II laser-guided bomb components, the majority share of the Air Force's laser-guided bomb buy for overseas contingency operations.

The contract was competitively awarded because Raytheon offered the government the lowest price system that met all requirements.

"Numerous tests have demonstrated that Raytheon's combat-proven Paveway has unbeatable accuracy and unmatched standoff distance; this contract validates that our weapon also has the best price," said Harry Schulte, vice president of Raytheon Missile Systems' Air Warfare Systems.

"Because Paveway is approved for direct commercial sales, we look forward to offering customers around the globe the same competitive pricing."

The combat-proven Paveway is a kit that transforms "dumb" bombs into precision-guided weapons. Paveway II and Paveway III are laser-guidance kits, while the Enhanced Paveway II, Enhanced Paveway III and Paveway IV use both laser- and GPS-guidance.

Paveway Highlights

+ More than 300,000 Paveways are in the inventory of 43 nations.

+ The Paveway family of weapons is integrated on 25 aircraft.

+ Thousands of Paveways have been used in combat.