The Navy has awarded ATK [ATK] a $71 million contract for the full-rate production of a new air-to-ground missile designed to better defeat enemy countermeasures than the legacy systems.
ATK said yesterday the contract authorizes production of 72 Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missiles (AARGM) for the Navy and Italian Air Force, as well as training missile systems for the Navy, and all related supplies and services. Deliveries are set to begin in 2013.
Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) said in August that it would soon issue the contract for the missiles intended to address a current capability gap presented by the High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) that was first deployed three decades ago.
“AARGM defeats multiple countermeasures that have been developed by U.S. adversaries since HARM was deployed in the 1980’s,” NAVAIR said.
The Navy and Marine Corps plan to carry the AARGM on F/A-18s.
The decision to go into full-rate production comes following Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) of AARGM earlier this year, when it flew a total of 633 flight hours and conducted 12 live fires, NAVAIR said.
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