Raytheon awarded $93.7m

Raytheon has received a $93.7m Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) contract to develop the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) AGM-154C1, formerly JSOW Block III.

JSOW is a joint navy and air force program. This family of air-to-ground weapons employs an integrated GPS/Inertial Navigation System that guides the weapon to the target. The JSOW is capable of carrying various payloads and its long standoff range, up to 70 nautical miles, allows delivery from well outside the lethal range of most enemy air defences.

‘This contract award represents a major step forward in providing the navy fleet pilots with much-needed capability against moving ship targets,’ said John O'Brien, Raytheon's JSOW program director ‘The results of detailed trade studies performed by the NAVAIR-Raytheon team enabled Raytheon to develop an initial architecture and initial mission effectiveness assessment for this new JSOW variant. The studies were critical to the new seeker design, seeker software algorithm development and data link selection.’