Raytheon Co., Tewksbury, Massachusetts, was awarded a $182,295,333 firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of NASAMS (National/Norwegian Advanced Surface to Air Missile System). The United States government announced the purchase of two NASAMS systems for Ukraine in July 2022, “to defend against cruise missiles and aircraft.” Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 23, 2024. Fiscal 2022 Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds in the amount of $182,295,333 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.
The US has been steadily announcing additional security assistance for Ukraine. Ukrainian officials have asked for the missile defense system, known as a NASAMS system though the Ukrainian forces will likely need to be trained on the systems. the Biden administration announced an additional $450 million in military assistance for Ukraine, giving it four more multiple launch rocket systems and artillery ammunition for other systems.This procurement would take several months to finalize and will require extensive training for Ukrainian users. Subsequently, in August 2022 the US announced it would buy an additional 6 NASAMS units as part of nearly $3B in military aid “to provide additional priority capabilities to Ukraine in the mid- and long-term.
NASAMS is a distributed and networked short- to medium-range? ground-based air defense system developed by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA) and Raytheon. The system defends against unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), helicopters, cruise missiles, unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), and aircraft. NASAMS was the first application of a surface-launched AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile). NASAMS 2 is an upgraded version of the system capable of using Link 16, which has been operational since 2007. As of 2022 NASAMS 3 is the latest upgrade; deployed in 2019, it adds capability to fire AIM-9 Sidewinder and IRIS-T SLS short-range missiles and AMRAAM-ER extended-range missiles, and introduces mobile air-liftable launchers.
Development of NASAMS began in the 1990s when the Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA) teamed up with Raytheon and initiated the NASAMS programme as a cooperative effort for the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF). NASAMS uses an inertial navigation system during initial approach, and the TPQ-36A radar was upgraded to the rotating AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel configuration. An enhanced NASAMS 2 was developed in the 2000s and became operational in 2006, while a third generation, NASAMS 3, was developed in the 2010s and fielded in 2019. NASAMS has proven interoperability with longer range systems such as Patriot. NASAMS is in operational use in Chile, Norway, Spain, USA, the Netherlands, Finland, Oman, Lithuania, Australia, Hungary, Indonesia, Spain, Oman and Qatar.
