Raytheon Missiles and Defense, Tucson, Arizona, is awarded a $28,248,213 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for design agent and engineering support services for the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) upgraded MK 31 Guided Missile Weapon System Improvement Program. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $282,551,290. This contract combines purchases for the Navy (74%); and the governments of Qatar (10%), Japan (9%), and Egypt (7%), under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona, and is expected to be completed by September 2025. If all options are exercised, work will continue through June 2028. U.S. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-23-C-5401).
FMS in the amount of $5,579,425 (26%); fiscal 2023 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $4,250,757 (20%); fiscal 2023 weapons procurement (Navy) in the amount of $2,549,851 (12%); fiscal 2023 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $2,475,736 (11%); fiscal 2022 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $2,490,028 (11%); fiscal 2021 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,835,478 (8%); fiscal 2023 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,329,432 (6%); fiscal 2023 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,127,508 (5%); and fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $195,093 (1%) will be obligated at time of award, of which $1,329,432 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
The RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) is a small, lightweight, infrared homing surface-to-air missile in use by the German, Japanese, Greek, Turkish, South Korean, Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, Mexican, UAE, and United States Navies. It was originally intended and used primarily as a point-defense weapon against anti-ship missiles. As its name indicates, RAM rolls as it flies. The missile must roll during flight because the RF tracking system uses a two-antenna interferometer that can measure phase interference of the electromagnetic wave in one plane only. The rolling interferometer permits the antennas to look at all planes of incoming energy. In addition, because the missile rolls, only one pair of steering canards is required.
The Rolling Airframe Missiles, together with the Mk 49 Guided Missile Launching System (GMLS) and support equipment, make up the RAM Mk 31 Guided Missile Weapon System (GMWS). The Mk-144 Guided Missile Launcher (GML) unit weighs 5,777 kilograms (12,736 lb) and stores 21 missiles. The original weapon cannot employ its own sensors prior to firing, so it must be integrated with a ship’s combat system, which directs the launcher at targets. On U.S. ships, it is integrated with the AN/SWY-2 Ship Defense Surface Missile System (SDSMS) and Ship Self-Defense System (SSDS) Mk 1 or Mk 2-based combat systems. SeaRAM, a launcher variant equipped with independent sensors derived from the Vulcan Phalanx CIWS, is being installed on Littoral Combat Ships and certain Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
