The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) awarded Raytheon [RTN] a $614 million modification to produce 17 Standard Missile (SM)-3 Block IIA missiles and other associated work, reducing the overall contract overall value.

The Aug. 28 modification directed Raytheon to build  the missiles, perform production support and engineering efforts, obsolescence monitoring, technical baseline engineering support, quality assurance and audit efforts, and provide containers.

An SM-3 Block IIA missile interceptor is launched from the USS John Paul Jones in a Feb. 2017 test called SFTM-1. Photo: Missile Defense Agency.
An SM-3 Block IIA missile interceptor is launched from the USS John Paul Jones in a Feb. 2017 test called SFTM-1. Photo: Missile Defense Agency.

This award definitizes a previously awarded undefinitized contract action from Dec. 2015 and decreases the total contract value from $630 million down to $619.6 million.

Work will occur in Tuscon, Ariz., and is estimated to be finished by March 2020. Fiscal year 2017 research, development, test and evaluation funds of $45 million were obligated at award time.

In the last test of this unit and second intercept test overall in June, an SM-3 Block IIA launched from the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS John Paul Jones failed to intercept a medium-range ballistic missile target launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Kauai, Hawaii.

A report from Defense News said an agency review of the test found human error likely caused the failure. A mistaken input into the combat system by a sailor on the destroyer caused the missile to self-destruct before reaching its target.

The report said a tactical datalink controller, which maintains encrypted data exchanges between ships and aircraft, identified the target missiles as friendly, leading the SM-3 to destroy itself.

The SM-3 Block IIA is designed to be launched from Aegis-equipped ships and the Aegis Ashore European Phased Adaptive Approach missile defense system in Europe to intercept short to intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

The SM-3 Block IIA is being jointly developed by MDA, Japan, and Raytheon to defend against medium and intermediate-range ballistic missile that could be fired by North Korea or Iran. Although this developmental interceptor has not yet been fielded by either country, it is planned to be deployed on land and sea starting in 2018.

The Block IIA uses a larger kinetic warhead compared to earlier iterations that improves the search, discrimination, acquisition, tracking, and rocket motors of the missile to engage more sophisticated threats in a larger protection region. It is designed to operate with the Lockheed Martin [LMT] Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system, which currently operates the SM-3 Block IA, SM-3 Block IB, and SM-6 missiles.