A Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block 1B interceptor missile is launched from the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70) during a Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy test in the mid-Pacific. The SM-3 Block 1B successfully intercepted a target missile that had been launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands in Kauai, Hawaii. Lake Erie detected and tracked the target with its on board AN/SPY-1 radar. The event was the third consecutive successful intercept test of the SM-3 Block IB missile. (U.S. Navy photo/Released)
WASHINGTON — Seeking to boost Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) production numbers, the Department of Defense has inked framework agreements with Boeing and RTX to scale several hardware components, the Pentagon announced today.
“Both agreements will strengthen production of the series of critical ship-fired surface-to-air interceptors that underpin the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System and form the backbone of U.S. sea-based missile defense at home and abroad,” DoD said.
The Pentagon’s announcement was short on details, and spokespeople for the department did not immediately respond to Breaking Defense’s request for additional information. But in its own announcement, Boeing described the arrangements as “seven-year framework agreements” in which the company would “boost output of avionics and ejector assemblies for the SM-3 Block IB and Block IIA variants to enable increased production of the interceptors that form the backbone of U.S. sea-based missile defense at home and abroad.”
