U.S. Navy taps Raytheon for Standard Missile engineering

April 18 (UPI) -- Raytheon received a $113 million contract to perform engineering and technical services for several Standard Missile variants used by the U.S. Navy.

In addition to the Navy, the contract supports procurement for other government agencies and foreign military sales to undisclosed customers. It also covers engineering work for the Standard Missile 2, 3 and 6.

Raytheon's tasks for the contract will include research and development efforts, component improvement, shipboard integration and evaluation services. Other options, if exercised, can bring the cumulative value of the contract to $466 million.

Most of the work will be performed at Raytheon's facility in Tucson, Ariz., with additional tasks to be conducted in Arkansas, Florida and Alabama. The company is expected to complete the work by April 2022.

Raytheon received $2.6 million in fiscal 2017 weapons procurement funding at the time of the contract award, none of which is set to expire at the end of the fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command is the contracting activity.

Standard Missiles are medium-to-long range surface-to-air weapons used as the Navy's primary air defense solution. The missiles are integrated with the AEGIS Weapon System used on many of the Navy's destroyers, and launched using a Mark 41 vertical launcher system.

The SM-6 is an extended-range variant of the missile, and is used to combat threats over-the-horizon.

The missiles have been procured by 15 allied naval forces.