Raytheon
has been awarded a $57 million contract to produce 16 Phalanx Block 1B upgrade kits for the United Kingdom's
Royal Navy.
The contract was signed between Devonport Royal Dockyard Limited (DRDL), the UK Ministry of Defence's prime contractor for Phalanx, and Raytheon Systems Limited (RSL), the UK subsidiary of Raytheon.
All 16 kits will be produced at Raytheon Missile System's Louisville, Kentucky, facility and installed at the DRDL. The first kit will be delivered in September 2007 with the remaining kits following during a six-year period.
"This upgrade is vitally important, especially in the context of the evolving threats worldwide," said Paul Gilligan, head of platform integration for RSL. "It provides protection to ships and their crews against an increased number of threats including small, fast gunboats; standard and guided artillery; helicopters; mines and a variety of shore-launched, anti-ship missiles."
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