The U.S. Army has asked Sippican Inc., a Lockheed Martin company, to supply fuzes warheads of the Stinger Man-Portable Air Defense System (MANPADS). The Stinger missile contains a hit-to-kill fuze which is effective against enemy fixed and rotary wing aircraft. The $92.45 million contract award from U.S. Army Contracting Command enables the company to provide M934E6 Stinger fuze/warhead body assemblies and M934E7 Stinger proximity fuze warhead body assemblies. The deal was awarded to the company on April 9, 2021.
The FIM-92 Stinger is a man-portable air-defense system (MANPADS) that operates as an infrared homing surface-to-air missile (SAM). It can be adapted to fire from a wide variety of ground vehicles and helicopters (as an air-to-air missile). Developed in the United States, it entered service in 1981 and is used by the militaries of the United States and 29 other countries. It is principally manufactured by Raytheon Missile Systems and is produced under license by EADS in Germany and by ROKETSAN in Turkey, with 70,000 missiles produced.
The missile is 5.0 ft (1.52 m) long and 2.8 in (70 mm) in diameter with 3.9 in (100 mm) fins. The missile itself weighs 22 lb (10.1 kg), while the missile with its launch tube and integral sight, fitted with a gripstock and Identification friend or foe (IFF) antenna, weighs approximately 34 lb (15.2 kg). It has an outward targeting range of up to 4,800 m and can engage low altitude enemy threats at up to 3,800 m. The warhead is a 6.6 lb (3 kg) penetrating hit-to-kill annular blast fragmentation type with an impact fuze and a self-destruct timer.
Lockheed Martin Sippican focusing on military intelligence and defense systems for submarines and naval surface ships. Areas of operation include Sea-Air Systems (expendable probes, oceanographic instrumentation, communications, submarine antennas, and Stinger Missile fuzes), Countermeasures (chaff, infrared, and acoustic decoys), and Underwater Vehicles (self-propelled acoustic and anti-submarine training targets). A subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, the company also has a contract manufacturing subsidiary, Polaris Contract Manufacturing, which makes electronic products.
