Lockheed Martin has received contracts worth US$556m from the US army’s Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) for hardware and services associated with the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile programme.

The contracts cover production of 148 hit-to-kill PAC-3 Missiles, 17 launcher modification kits, spares and related equipment, programme management and engineering services.

The PAC-3 Missile is the world’s only fielded pure kinetic energy air defence missile, Lockheed says.

Deliveries on the contracts are expected to be complete by July 2010.

Lockheed will also produce equipment to upgrade all US army Patriot fire units to the current Configuration-3 capacity as part of the army’s Pure Fleet Initiative to provide consistency across the fleet for the user wherever the Patriot is deployed.

By staff writer