A Raytheon-Lockheed team has been awarded a $10 million Army contract for work on a lightweight launcher for the portable Javelin antitank missile system.
The Raytheon/Lockheed Martin Javelin Joint Venture, based at Raytheon Missile Systems in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, will work through September 2019 on reducing the weight of the Javelin Command Launch Unit, including management, engineering and design work, according to a Pentagon contract notice.
Besides the lighter launcher, the Raytheon-Lockheed team has been working on improved missile electronics, a new multi-purpose warhead and an uncooled infrared target seeker for the Javelin.
First produced in 1996, the shoulder-fired Javelin has been fired in combat more than 2,000 times by U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan since the 2003 invasion of Iraq in 2003. Besides the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, the Javelin is used by about 20 allied nations.
People are also reading…
Separately, Raytheon Missile Systems recently was awarded a $75 million Air Force contract for Small Diameter Bomb II technical support. Work on the all-weather, precision guided glide bomb will be performed in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ and is expected to be complete by July 2024, the Defense Department said.
