Raytheon Bags $2.4 Bln Contract To Provide Qatar With Patriot Defense System

(RTTNews) - Defense contractor Raytheon Co. (RTN) announced Monday that it has bagged a $2.4 billion foreign military sales contract for new-production fire units of the combat-proven Patriot Air and Missile Defense System for the State of Qatar. The deal is part of Qatar's Armed Services modernization and recapitalization effort that was announced in March.

Raytheon said it now has a total of 13 global Patriot customers with the addition of Qatar as a new Patriot customer.

"This award is yet another example of the trust countries around the world place in the combat-proven Patriot. As our customer base continues to grow, our global partners benefit from the shared costs for system upgrades and enhancements through Raytheon's unique Engineering Services Program," said Dan Crowley, president of Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems business.

The contract will include the latest Patriot fire units featuring increased computing power and radar processing efficiency, improved man-machine interface and reduced life-cycle costs. Patriot will be the cornerstone of Qatar's advanced Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) capability.

Raytheon's Integrated Air Defense Center will take over the work under the contract.

On December 1, Raytheon was also awarded an up to $75.6 million undefinitized contract action (UCA) for a Foreign Military Sales contract by U.S. Air Force to design and implement an Air and Missile Defense Operation Center for the State of Qatar. The deal was also part of the Qatar's Armed Forces Modernization and recapitalization effort.

The contract will provide Qatar with an Air and Missile Defense Operations Center (ADOC) which will integrate U.S. air defense systems including Patriot, the Early Warning Radar, and THAAD; with European air defense systems and radars and Qatar's Air Operation Center.

RTN closed Friday's regular trading session at $106.82, up $0.53 on a volume of 2.51 million shares.