WASHINGTON – Shipboard electronics experts at the Raytheon Co. are building additional MK 99 fire-control systems for the Aegis weapon systems on future Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers under terms of a $123.5 million order announced Friday.
Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington are asking the Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems segment in Marlborough, Mass., for fiscal 2020 options on MK 99 Aegis fire-control systems equipment.
The MK 99 fire-control system functions as the interface between the Aegis AN/SPY-1 radar and the ship-launched SM-2 family of anti-air missiles. The MK 99 fire-control system communicates with the missile-control station, notifying it of the air threat, and then illuminates the missile's target.
Flight III Burke-class destroyers are the latest versions of the Aegis warship that are scheduled to go to sea beginning in 2023.The MK 99 also controls the loading and arming of shipboard missiles aboard Burke-class destroyers and Ticonderoga-class cruisers. The MK 99 launches and provides terminal guidance for the ship's missiles, and controls the continuous-wave illuminating radar to provide a high probability of kill.
The order to Raytheon also includes Aegis modernization and engineering services for Flight III Burke-class destroyers, and the Spanish navy’s F-110 program.
This order also covers building Aegis ballistic missile defense kill assessment ordnance alteration kits and solid-state switch assembly test equipment to help enhance Flight III Burke-class destroyer anti-air warfare and ballistic missile defense capabilities.
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The Aegis weapon system comprises the AN/SPY-1 radar, the MK 99 fire control system, weapon control system, the command and decision suite, and SM-2 Standard missile family, which includes the basic RIM-66, the RIM-67 extended range, and the newer RIM-161 to counter ballistic missiles. The extended-range RIM-174 was deployed in 2013.
On this order Raytheon will do the work in Andover, Marlborough, and Burlington Mass; Chesapeake, Va.; Portsmouth, R.I.; and San Diego, and should be finished by April 2023.
For more information contact Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems online at www.raytheon.com, or Naval Sea Systems Command at www.navsea.navy.mil.
