Raytheon awarded $24 billion contract for SM-6 interceptors

Raytheon, an RTX business, has secured a five-year contract, with two additional option years, valued up to USD 24.4 billion for Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) interceptors, significantly increasing the availability of a critical munition able to conduct both offensive strikes and missile defense missions.

Building on agreements between Raytheon and the Department of War, this long-term order ensures a consistent, reliable supply of SM-6s for the U.S. Navy, RTX said in a press release.

“SM-6’s multi-mission capability is vital to our customer, and Raytheon is intensely focused on meeting the demand,” said Raytheon President Phil Jasper. “By continuously investing in our operations and facilities, we are removing constraints and boosting capacity to ensure we deliver this critical capability our sailors depend on.”

Raytheon has invested heavily to keep pace with rising demand, growing its skilled workforce, building stronger partnerships across the defense industrial base and automating production, RTX said.

These combined efforts are intended to support significantly higher output for near and long-term needs.

SM-6 can perform anti-air warfare, anti-surface warfare and ballistic missile defense. It has been successfully fired from various US Navy ship-based platforms and launchers on land, providing the fleet with a versatile and highly reliable weapon to counter the full range of kinetic threats faced by today's naval forces, the press release said.