Raytheon Company and Rafael Armament Development Authority announced Wednesday they have been selected by the Israeli Missile Defense Organization to develop a new terminal missile defense interceptor. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.
The Short Range Ballistic Missile Defense program is an IMDO initiative to address the proliferating threat of short-range ballistic threats. Such missiles and rockets are cheap, plentiful, easily concealed and largely exempt from international arms control accords.
These relatively insignificant battlefield weapons can be transformed into deadly, strategic threats, however, when fitted with unconventional warheads and deployed in large quantities, Raytheon said in a statement.
“Our interceptor solution fundamentally redefines the performance-cost value equation for terminal missile defense, providing all-weather, hit-to-kill performance at a tactical missile price,” said David Stemer, Rafael missile division’s general manager.
Raytheon is a leading manufacturer of missile-defense interceptors for both ground- and sea-based programs. The company scored hit-to-kill successes with its sea-based Standard Missile-3, part of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program, on Jan. 25, June 13 and Nov. 21, 2002; on Dec. 11, 2003, and on Feb. 24 and Nov. 17, 2005.
Raytheon also scored with its Ground-based Missile Defense program on Oct. 2, 1999; on July 13 and Dec. 3, 2001; and on March 15 and Oct. 14, 2002.
