Login
iscover
The US Army has engaged American defence prime Raytheon in a $676 million deal to supply the tube-launched, optically-tracked, wireless-guided (TOW) weapon system.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
The two separate awards comprise an annual production contract for $430 million in fiscal year 2023 and an additional $246 million award in 2024. Work under these contracts will take place in Tucson, Arizona.
“Our TOW production line is active, and we can manufacture up to 10,000 missiles annually,” said Tom Laliberty, president of land and air defence systems at Raytheon.
“This combat-proven effector is ready to meet current and future anti-tank guided missile requirements for the US Army, Marines Corps, and land forces across the globe.”
Raytheon continues to improve the TOW design with modernised fusing and target detection. These upgrades were recently demonstrated in successful fly-to-buy lot acceptance tests of the latest TOW 2B variant of the missile.
The modernised fusing and target detection updates reportedly provide warfighters with better capability, maintaining the fast target engagement time.
Additionally, improvements to the overall missile design and packaging will help meet the latest military environmental requirements to support evolving logistical and terrain challenges.
To date, Raytheon has delivered more than 700,000 TOW weapon systems to US and international armed forces.
Since 2003, the TOW missile system has been used in combat 11,000 times and the US Department of Defense has provided Ukraine with approximately 13,000 TOW missiles.
TOW is compatible with a variety of manned and unmanned vehicles, including the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, Stryker anti-tank guided missile vehicle, Bradley Fighting Vehicle, and numerous light armoured vehicles.
