WASHINGTON, April 22 (UPI) -- Raytheon said Tuesday it has a $5 million U.S. Missile Defense Agency contract to start initial planning for the European mid-course radar system to be deployed in the Czech Republic.

The proposed advanced radar array base in the Czech Republic will be essential to guide the 10 ground-based mid-course interceptors to be deployed at a base in neighboring Poland to intercept any future intercontinental ballistic missiles that Iran might launch against the United States or Western Europe.

The U.S. government is still involved in negotiations with the Czech government to build the base. But if agreement is reached on the issue, the MDA plans to move a Z-band radar currently deployed in the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific Ocean to a location southwest of the Czech capital of Prague.

"Raytheon is pleased to offer this capability," said Pete Franklin, vice president, National & Theater Security Programs for Raytheon Integrated Air Defense Systems. "This radar's extraordinary discrimination capability and interoperability will provide the United States and its NATO partners significant confidence and flexibility in response to these threats."

Raytheon said in a statement that it would also include Czech industrial corporations as partners in the project and in the construction of the base and its facilities.