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Raytheon said the Netherlands, Japan, Australia and South Korea aligned their requirements and pooled resources to make a “bundle� SM-2 purchase through the Pentagon’s foreign military sales program.

With a range of more than 100 miles, the SM-2 is primarily used by U.S. and allied navies for fleet air-defense and ship self-defense.

Missile Systems President Taylor Lawrence said in a statement that the SM-2 remains a “backbone� of the allies’ fleet defense, but there haven’t been enough international orders to keep the production line going.

The new contract, worth $652 million over time with all options exercised, will have Raytheon producing SM-2s well beyond 2035, he said.

New deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2020 and will include more than 280 SM-2 Block IIIA and IIIB missiles, the latest versions. More than half of the missiles will go to Japan, according to a Defense Department contract notice.

Raytheon and the U.S. Navy are using the restart as an opportunity to modernize production and testing processes in the company’s SM-2 factory, the company said.

According to the Pentagon, about 60 percent of the work will be performed in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, where Raytheon is the area’s largest private employer with about 10,000 workers.

Besides the four nations involved in the new production contract, SM-2 international customers include Canada, Germany, Spain and Taiwan, Raytheon said.