PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. – Air-defense experts at the Boeing Co. will build missile coastal defense systems for Taiwan under terms of an order announced Monday potentially worth nearly half a billion dollars.
Officials of the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., are asking the Boeing Defense, Space & Security segment in St. Louis to produce and deliver the Harpoon Coastal Defense System Launch System (HCDS) for Taiwan. The order is for $498.3 million.
The order consists of 100 launcher transporter units, 25 radar units, and HCDS training equipment. Boeing won a $220 million order in September for Taiwan HCDS engineering and configuration support for the radar-guided Harpoon coastal defense system.
The HCDS is the land-based version of the Boeing Harpoon missile Block II anti-ship and land-attack missile, which is designed to eliminate enemy coastal defenses, surface-to-air missile launch sites, aircraft, ports, and docked ships.
HCDS consists of RGM-84L-4 Block II surface-launched Harpoon missiles with a maximum range of 75 miles, radar trucks, and support and test equipment. The Harpoon Block II, uses a 500-pound warhead for sea and land-based targets.
The Harpoon’s active radar guidance, low-level sea-skimming cruise trajectory, terminal mode sea-skim or pop-up maneuvers, and warhead design, assure high survivability and effectiveness, Navy officials say. The Harpoon missile has been in the Navy inventory since 1977.
On this order Boeing will do the work in Sioux Falls, S.D.; Oshkosh, Wis.; Lititz, Pa.; St. Louis and St. Charles, Mo.; New York City; Cincinnati; Minneapolis; and Warner Robins, Ga., and should be finished by December 2028.
For more information contact Boeing Defense, Space & Security online at www.boeing.com/company/about-bds, Naval Air Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil, or the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense at www.mnd.gov.tw.
