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By Neil Baumgardner
Following its selection yesterday by Britain's Ministry of Defence for a contract expected to be worth $175 million to meet the country's long-term precision guided bomb (PGB) needs, Raytheon [RTN] is looking to offer the Paveway IV in the world-wide market for low-cost all-weather PGBs, including the United States, according to company officials.
"We see Paveway IV being a very competitive product in that market, the international market, but also in the United States as well," Dean Mason, the business manager for weapon systems for Raytheon Systems Limited in Britain, yesterday told Defense Daily during a telephone interview.
Britain yesterday selected Raytheon's Paveway IV over a variant of the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) offered by the European missile consortium MBDA and Boeing [BA], the second such win by Raytheon in three years.
Under the contract, Raytheon will supply Paveway IV kits, 500- pound bombs and fuzes for Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy. The Paveway IV kits will include GPS-guided inertial navigation with anti-spoofing and anti-jamming technology. The bombs can also be equipped with laser guidance systems for dual-mode guidance.
Additionally, the Paveway IV bombs will be equipped with "late arm" guidance systems that send a message to the fuze two...