Saudi Arabia to receive 618 target-penetrating guided missiles from Raytheon in $302.4 million deal
PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. – Precision-guided munitions experts at Raytheon Co. will provide Saudi Arabian military forces with 618 hard-target-penetrating and data-linked medium-range precision-guidedmissiles under terms of a $302.4 million order announced last week.
Officials of the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., are asking the Raytheon Missile Systems segment in Tucson, Ariz., to produce AGM-154 Block III C Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) air-to-ground unitary-variant missiles for the government of Saudi Arabia under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.
The AGM-154 JSOW is medium range precision-guided weapon for attacking defended targets from outside the range of standard anti-aircraft defenses. Pilots typically fire JSOW from ranges of 22 to 70 nautical miles. The contract modification includes containers, spart parts, and technical assistance.
JSOW can launch from F/A-18, F-16, F-15, F-35, and Jas Gripen jet fighter-bombers; as well as from B-1B, B-2A, and B-52H long-range jet bombers. The AGM-154C JSOW unitary variant uses an imaging infrared seeker with autonomous guidance.
The two-stage AGM-154C carries the BROACH warhead made up from a WDU-44 shaped augmenting warhead and a WDU-45 follow through bomb, and is designed to attack hardened targets like armor, concrete, and earth to enable a large following warhead to explode inside the target. The JSOW munition is 13 feet long and weighs about 1,000 pounds.
On this order Raytheon will do the work in Tucson, Ariz. (36.6 percent); Glascoed, Wales; Dallas; Glasgow, Scotland; Vergennes, Vt.; Minneapolis; Richardson, Texas; Andover, Mass.; McAlester and Tulsa, Okla.; Joplin, Mo.; Goleta and Valencia, Calif.; Williamsport, Pa.; Berryville, Ark.; Bohemia and Orchard Park, N.Y.; Pinellas Park, Fla.; Boulder, Colo.; and other U.S. locations, and should be finished by June 2022.
For more information contact Raytheon Missile Systems online at www.raytheon.com, or Naval Air Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil.
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John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
